‘Societal conditioning makes women adjust at every step of life’

Pooja Chopra recalls an episode from her past when her mother was asked to compromise to make her marriage work, and the actor says she does not like how “our upbringing and societal conditioning make women adjust at every step of life”. The 37-year-old, who was last seen in director Kamal Pandey’s Jahaan Chaar Yaar — a film that throws light on the lives of four women who lose their identities after marriage — adds if you have “lost your identity in a relationship, you have lost everything”. That is why she urges every girl to be independent.

Recalling more about her past, Chopra says, “My father walked out after I was born. I was the second girl child in the family. My mum left our house, and when she went to her maternal home, she was asked to go back. She was told, ‘Woh tumhara ghar hai. Adjust karo. Compromise karo. Find a way to make things work’. This is solely because of the upbringing we are given.”

But, she says she won’t let anyone question her self-respect like that in any relationship: “I draw the line when someone challenges my self-respect. It is extremely important for women to be independent. Once you have your own identity, you know where to draw the line and when you ought to move out of a toxic relationship. It can’t be a one-way street.”