Aahana Kumra: Consent for me is everything

Mumbai, March 31 (IANS) Actress Aahana Kumra says she didn't grow up understanding the meaning of consent, adding that she feels it is a very important conversation everybody must be having.

"Consent for me is everything. I don't think I grew up with the idea of understanding what consent meant because obviously we are all conditioned to believe that everything that our parents impose on us or the society imposes on us is the end of everything," Aahana said.



"But I have realized over the years that we must have an opinion, we must have a mind of our own. The good thing is that my parents have always explained to me the difference between good touch and bad touch. They have always had these conversations with me even when I was a child," she added.

The actress continued: "So, I was always taught these things, and this is the same conversation I have with the children in my family. Consent for me is everything because it really has opened me up in terms of conversation with the person in front of me and I think only once when you get into a relationship and then you understand what a relationship is going to teach you. Thankfully, I have had great relationships in the past and I have learned so much from them. So, of course, it is a very important conversation everybody must-have."

At the moment, Aahana is seen in the drama thriller web series "Marzi". It is about a series of casual activities between the two protagonists of the show, who subsequently falls into a major mishap, exposing the fading line between power, deception, and trust.



Set in Shimla, the show, which streams on Voot Select, questions the loyalty of a situation while constantly asking the question - ‘who's side are you on?'. It also stars Rajeev Khandelwal.

Talking about the show, she said: "The script was fabulous and that's something that I thought was very challenging. It is something different from what I have done in the past on the screen. I think it was very liberating in many ways because I felt that sometimes even in performances there are spurs of moments wherein you need to be emotional, dramatic, frustrated but here I was constantly violated, I was constantly agitated, constantly frustrated and it obviously felt like something that I haven't ever done in my life."

"I think it really did completely change my perception towards performance to quite an extent. It's a conversation that I feel is very important to have in today's time and I think a lot of people are moving towards having conversations about consent which is something that people didn't speak about earlier or back in the days. Now, it's rather important to have this conversation because I think in this century we can only move forward and not backward. This is a conversation that we must pass on to our generations to have because we are learning through our mistakes and they should see what mistakes we have made and should not repeat them," she added.

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