Earlier this year, Saba Azad opened up about the challenges she faced due to her relationship with Hrithik Roshan. She discussed how she found out the assumptions surrounding her relationship actually affected the voiceover opportunities she had in her career. Hailed as both a singer and actor, Saba mentioned how she eventually realized that her romance with Hrithik made her seem to get less voice-over work.
She recalled her good old days where she could deliver 6-7 work a month in her voice-over career. For the last two years, she did not know why offers have slowly come down. No warning and no price hike was given; she went silently out of business.
Saba revealed in her Instagram stories that a renowned director commented on her situation saying she would not be interested in voiceover work anymore due to her relationship with Hrithik. She wrote, “Well, you can imagine what was implied… He didn’t think I would do a job like a VO given where you are in life, i.e., who I am dating.” She described this director as a “super progressive, chill” person, which makes the assumption ironic.
To this, Saba laments that the societal view towards a woman who happens to be in a relationship assumes that she does not need to work anymore. “Are we really still living in the dark ages where we assume a woman in a relationship with a successful partner no longer has to put food on her own table?” she questioned. “What kind of archaic assumption to make!”
She blamed such ill-conceived notions for taking away her job opportunities. She was quite sorrowful that she lost a career she loved, because people thought that she no longer needed to work. “This is sadly a one-dimensional, patriarchal, and regressive mindset,” she commented.
She concluded by saying, “When two strong independent people come together, their individuality and profession never go down. They hold on to their individuality and share from a place of freedom and strength.” That’s the deep pain in saying one loses his or her profession because of someone’s ignorance.
Saba declared, “So again, no I haven’t quit, all ye makers of ads—I still do VOs. So please, for the love of God, undo your assumptions and let’s get recording already!” This throwback moment proved a great reminder of the need to fight outdated beliefs about women and work.
