The 2016 film ‘Pink’ opened up an important discourse around consent and how one should not assume it. The legal thriller starred Amitabh Bachchan as a lawyer who represents the case of three women, played by Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, and Andrea Tariang. The film pivoted the career of Taapsee Pannu, emerging as a big breakthrough for her. Recently, Kirti opened up about the side-lining during the film’s promotions. She revealed having a meltdown after the film became a Taapsee Pannu movie due to PR.

Speaking with Fever FM, Kirti Kulhari recalled how the hierarchy amongst actors affected her deeply during ‘Pink.’ She said, “When Pink happened, for me, there was never a thought, ‘Who is big or small’ in terms of their status in the industry. I was like it is a story of three girls. That’s how I saw it. I came from a space where I believed ‘We are all actors. We are all together’. But Pink made me feel a lot of ‘big star-small star’ treatment. The people around you make you feel that way.”

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Reminiscing, she said that how Taapsee Pannu received the star treatment for the film after Amitabh Bachchan. Kirti said that she had the sad realisation of only after watching the film’s trailer. Resultantly, Kirti had a meltdown.

She said, “I saw the trailer was mainly filled with Taapsee and Mr Bachchan. That was first jhatka for me because I know what I have done in the film. Shoojit was like, ‘Don’t worry about it, let the film come out.’ I never do PR. I believe my work will be eventually seen. However, during the promotions, the PR machinery happened for Taapsee because she came after Mr Bachchan (in terms of hierarchy) in that film. Eventually, it became her film and she became the Pink girl in terms of positioning and I saw that happening in front of me. This was the first shocker for me because I couldn’t understand this.”

For the film, Kirti received nominations for Best Supporting Actress. However, she never attended those events as Kirti did not see herself as a supporting actress in the film. When the interviewer probed if this strained her relationship with Taapsee, she said that it affected their equation. However, she added, “I think from her side, she didn’t notice this. She has been nice to me but that whole PR game, I took it a little personally.”

Following ‘Pink,’ Kirit made it a point to clear her position in the film for her subsequent titles. “I was very clear when I took up Mission Mangal. I told them, apart from Vidya, if I am not given equal positioning as the other girls, I won’t do it.” She added, “I learnt the positioning game on the job.”

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Looking at things in retrospect, Kirti got emotional while talking about hierarchy. “The whole hierarchy thing that happens, we have unconsciously become conditioned to treat it with, ‘What’s their status and what can they do for us’. Our behaviour changes with different people based on their status.”