Bollywood actress Sanya Malhotra shook things up with her performance in the 2023 film Mrs. She played a woman quietly pushing back against domestic patriarchy. Critics loved it, and honestly, the buzz online was wild.
Not everyone was cheering, though. Some men’s groups, especially the Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), went after the film, slamming it for what they called a “one-sided feminist narrative.” Basically, they didn’t like what the movie was saying about gender roles at home.
Sanya Malhotra reacts to Mrs Backlash
Sanya wasn’t having any of this. At CNN-News18’s SheShakti 2025, she fired back. She said, “The problem isn’t that she didn’t want to cook.
She was cooking, serving it all up nicely, and getting zero appreciation from the family.” No sugarcoating. She pointed out that the real issue started when her character wanted to do more; she’d proved she could handle the housework, but she also wanted the freedom to go after her dreams.
Sanya added that the story was never about bashing domestic work itself. It was about a woman not being allowed to choose for herself, about being denied the freedom to do what she loved. “The story has reached the people it needed to reach,” she finished, making it clear she’s not losing sleep over the backlash.
Sanya Malhotra explains what Mrs is all about
A lot of the criticism came from people twisting the narrative, acting like the film was anti-cooking or anti-household chores. That wasn’t the point at all. It was about how Richa, Sanya’s character, tried to balance her own ambitions with the expectations forced on her after marriage.
Mrs. also features Nishant Dahiya and Varun Badola. The plot follows Richa, an independent dancer, as she marries into a conservative family and butts heads with the suffocating standards expected of a wife. The struggle isn’t about the chores—it’s about choice, respect, and autonomy.
