Speaking at a public event, yesteryear actress, eminent feminist and public activist Shabana Azmi said that male stars in Bollywood should play second fiddle to actresses. According to her, this will make women-centric films more "viable".

A fair argument. The catch, however, is that will the audiences accept it? There may be a section of audiences who would like to see an Aamir Khan playing second fiddle to a Katrina Kaif or an Aishwarya Rai. But will such a film be lapped up by enough number of audiences, who are conditioned to see big stars as the dominant characters? Is it not true that even women movie-goers like their favourite male actor more intensely than their favourite female actor?

Imagine Pawan Kalyan playing the second hero in a film where Samantha plays the first hero. Imagine Mahesh Babu playing second fiddle to Kajal Aggarwal. If most of us are fine with these, change can be ushered in. But if most of us were fine with these, change would have already happened, at least on a small scale!