Jyothika Opens Up About Facing Discrimination as Suriya's Wife

Actress Jyothika, a well-known name in the Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi film industries, doesn't need any special introduction. She gained recognition through her performances in Telugu films like Mass, Tagore, and Shak, all of which were major hits. After falling in love with Tamil actor Suriya, she got married and moved to Chennai. 

However, after nearly 26 years, Jyothika made a return to the film industry. She has already received praise for her roles in films like Shreekanth (with Rajkummar Rao) and Shaitan. Now, her latest web series, Dabba Cartel, will be streaming on the popular OTT platform Netflix starting February 28. In the midst of ongoing promotions for the series, Jyothika recently shared her experience with gender discrimination.

Casual sexism is something that has become prevalent in society today. Despite marrying Suriya, I still face gender discrimination. Whenever I say in interviews that I am lucky to be married to Suriya, people praise him, saying how wonderful he is. But when it comes to Suriya talking about me being his wife, they say, "Suriya is such a great person, thinking so highly of his wife." I’m never seen as an individual in these situations because society portrays it this way.

Even when it comes to things like buying a car or any other product, we face gender discrimination. There’s often an attitude that someone else, not me, should decide the features of the car or any product, as if women can’t make decisions well. Sometimes, this even reaches a level where it causes a crisis in our own identity, she shared.