Anshula Kapoor, a young entrepreneur known for founding Fankind, an initiative that connects celebrities with fans for charitable causes, recently opened up in an exclusive interview on Hauterrfly’s The Male Feminist about her journey of building her company from the ground up. She shed light on the sexism and biases she faced as a solo female founder in a predominantly male-driven industry. As someone who stepped into the business world alone, Anshula Kapoor shared how the subtle (and not-so-subtle) forms of gender bias in the workplace revealed just how deep-rooted sexism can be.
Anshula Kapoor On Workplace Bias
When Anshula Kapoor, the daughter of film producer Boney Kapoor and sister of actor Arjun Kapoor, launched Fankind, she was navigating a completely new landscape, balancing legalities, accounting, and meeting with vendors and professionals. She revealed, “Fankind ka concept aisa tha ki I wanted to make sure legally we are completely on point and on board and anyway when you are starting a new business lawyers ko milna hota hai, accountants ko milna hota hai like you have kuch 40-50 vendors ki list you have to kind of figure it out and I was a solo founder and I didn’t have until 6 months before the launch. So ye sab jo mujhe karna tha mai akele kar rhi thi.”
Yet, she was repeatedly questioned about her legitimacy as the founder. “Conference room ka darwaza khula rha hai mai andar aa rhi hu mai sabko mil rhi hu, maine meeting fix ki maine emails kiye hai, maine phone se co-ordinate kiya hai and my email signature also would be a founder. I entered the meeting opened my laptop, like I am waiting and lets start and then I would get a response saying sir ko aane dijiye. Ek-do time mujhe laga ki sayad unke side se koi sir honge jo nhi aaye ab tak, so then main mental tally karna shuru karti ki email mein jo sab marked they wo toh yaha hai.”
“They’d assume some male figure, maybe my lawyer or a man from my team, would be coming,” she shared. “And my lawyer was also a female, so it was even funnier for them. They’d look around, like, ‘Yaha toh sirf ladkiyan hain, ladka kahan hai?’ as if they were searching for a man to talk to,” she laughed.
Anhsula Kapoor also shared an unsettling pattern in the way older men in particular responded to her in professional settings. Some were uncomfortable speaking directly to her, seemingly lost or hesitant without a male figure in the room. “Older men sometimes, when they have to talk to a girl, they would look at a male and talk, or look up at the roof instead of directly at me,” she explained. “It feels less professional to them if you’re doing business with a woman,” she noted, underlining how deeply ingrained this bias was.
On the latest episode of The Male Feminist, Anshula Kapoor also opened up about Sonam Kapoor, Rhea Kapoor and more.
Also Read: Exclusive: Anshula Kapoor Reveals How Janhvi Kapoor Met Her BF Rohan Thakkar: “She Felt Like…”