Women in small cities making big strides

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 10

Sukhmani Sadana has always been a multi-tasker, as an actor, a content creator and now, editor-in-chief of a lifestyle magazine. Hailing from Amritsar, she has also been the one striving to break stereotypes about small-town girls in the Bollywood. Her successful appearance in Sacred Games and Manmarziyan has bagged get her a quality work in the industry that’s famously unforgiving to outsiders. She says hard work and not luck is what gets things done. “I feel that artistes and actors, who come from small towns, have a lot of baggage, as they work hard to prove that they are as capable as those who come from big cities. There is an ambition to shine, there is that drive to excel because you have so much competition that it’s so inspiring,” she said.

The Boss Ladies, a community of women entrepreneurs in Amritsar, Sukhmani said smaller cities now have more women who are running successful small businesses. “The fact that women have taken this opportunity to shine in their role as entrepreneurs is heartening. Smaller cities offer a better work-life balance and maybe that’s why women here have more to choose from,” she said.

On the work front, Sukhmani has wrapped up shooting for two OTT series. “I am working with Poonam Dhillon, Raj Babbar, Chandrachud Singh for an upcoming series called Those Pricey Thakur Girls and also shot for Apharan 2. I am also doing a Netflix series, which will be a career defining moment for me but it’s too early to reveal the details,” she said.

More women turning their home businesses into brands

Bringing together women, who get things done at the professional and personal front, Boss Ladies, a community of women entrepreneurs was launched in city. Himja Rana, the woman behind the start-up community, who has been into the profession of business marketing and strategising, says that she saw the opportunity for an exclusive community for women entrepreneurs as more women are turning their home businesses into brands. “Today, more and more women are running small scale businesses through the comfort of their home. Also, post pandemic, several women have turned not just bread winners but also realised business opportunities in earning their bread. I wanted to develop a network of women entrepreneurs from small cities to educate and enable them to expand their businesses and realise marketing startegies,” she said.