"A woman cannot be used as a commodity and cast in a certain mould. The hero needs to acknowledge the heroine because the women are also heroes. The gender-sensitive mindsets in Indian cinema will have to go," Kala told IANS in an interview citing "Kahaani" as an example.

It isn't surprising that she struck the right chord with the story of a pregnant Vidya Bagchi looking for her husband on the streets of Kolkata in "Kahaani" as she had wowed readers with her maiden novel "Almost Single" in 2009. It had reportedly sold more than 100,000 copies.