Actor Shruti Haasan is popular for speaking her mind and voicing her opinions about everything that matters. Shruti, who has worked across Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi film industries, said she has had a combination of factors that have acted as a "protective barrier" for her in the industry, which included her surname. The actress also said that she has learned to navigate gender dynamics on a film set, where the hero gets preferential treatment, while most women use silence as a defence mechanism.

"The combination of my surname and my resting b**** face has kept a lot of people at an arm’s length. Now after many years, I feel comfortable and safe enough to open up and say whatever I want," Shruti said. The actor also opened up about her initial years in the industry and how some things would be considered impolite on set. 

"I chose silence and withdrawal as a protective mechanism. I think a lot of women on set feel that way. They’d say 'Don’t keep reading a book, it looks impolite'. So I’d just keep going to the vanity van because I didn’t know who to communicate with. It took me a long time to learn how to navigate things," Shruti said. 

"So the chair will be first kept for the hero. In my first few films, I was never offered a chair first, or on any other set. The guy always got the chair first. ‘Oh the hero has come near the monitor, get him a chair,’ they would say. It’s the good men who said, ‘No, you please sit first.’ I don’t face that anymore. But what I can do as a woman is sensitive to the women on set," she added. 

On the work front, the 34-year-old actor recently featured in the short film, Devi, directed by Priyanka Banerjee also starring Kajol.