Sharmila Tagore has always broken stereotypes and been a woman who did things her own way. A while ago, the actress had said in a chat with ETimes that during that time, actresses were chaperoned but she was not. She was an independent single woman while the industry was used to demure girls. Thus, Sharmila was branded as the bad girl at that point in time.
She has now spoken about it during a chat with Screen and said, “When I joined films, working in films was deeply frowned upon. Therefore, the film industry also withdrew. They had their own little club. They also stayed away from society, because it was very judgmental. The male actors were accepted, but the women were not respected.”

She further added, “She said that she once had mud slung at her by a mob, who also threatened to set the train she was travelling by on fire, but things changed eventually. “I came from a different kind of family. I was GN Tagore’s daughter. I knew who I was, and I had self-confidence. I didn’t really care much about what others said about me. I was exactly the same then as I am now… But because I lived alone in a hotel, I was not chaperoned, people had different ideas. I became a social suspect. Others were from Maharashtra, they were chaperoned, they wore white, they didn’t drink alcohol. I was different, so I was the ‘bad girl’,”

Sharmila continued that after she got married, she started getting a different kind of respect. “Even I felt, once upon a time, that I would be whistled at, or I would get that kind of admiration. When you get married, there is a different kind of respect. And when you become a mother, then you’ve joined the collective. I remember going to Hyderabad, and a car had to come to collect me. Within minutes a crowd gathered, and people asked me if my son needed to be taken care of, they took me to another room, brought me a chair… It was a different kind of reception altogether,” said the actress.