Director Anubhav Sinha’s latest film is a courtroom drama on assault cases. The film’s name, Assi refers to the 80 cases of rape reported daily in India. Every 20 minutes, a red screen appears in the film, a powerful reminder to the audience of the real-time statistics.In this interview, Sinha, as well as leads Taapsee Pannu and Kani Kusruti sit down with The Quint to discuss the importance of films like Assi, society's failure to prevent assault, hyper-masculinity in the industry, resistance to mounting female-led stories and the challenges directors now face while making films.Reflecting on the normalisation of rape culture in our country, Sinha believes the root issue is society's failure to educate children from a young age. Sinha advocated for more open conversations with young boys, stating "we are losing touch with our children, we need to talk to them more", especially in a digital age where content consumption is unsupervised. Anubhav Sinha In my heart, I made this film for children. We have not had the uncomfortable conversations we need to with them.Taapsee also addressed the systemic "scam" that is women having to bear the moral burden of men's actions, saying "the responsibility of righteousness always falls on the woman", whether it is being expected to cover up, or compensate for men's wrongdoings. Taapsee Pannu Women have been gifted the facade of privilege for generations while remaining underprivileged the whole time.The 2017 Unnao Rape Survivor on Life Beyond the CourtroomThese double standards not only operate on a household level, but are entrenched deep within the industry as well. When talking about the difficulty in mounting films like Assi, Taapsee was outspoken about how despite having a successful career for years, it is still not easy for her to get female-led films made.Taapsee PannuI still have to prove every time that I am worthy of leading a film. I still cannot convince investors that I can lead a film.“There’s a Lack of Good Producers”: Anurag Kashyap on Directors Moving AwayTaapsee further noted the stark contrast with male actors, who don't have to continually prove themselves after one hit film, unlike female actors. In an increasingly hyper-masculine industry, not only is there a discrepancy between actors, the quality of female led stories are held to much higher standards than male-led stories. Speaking on this, Taapsee said, "A female-led film has to be a 100% perfect for it to work at the box-office, whereas a below-average male-led film can be a blockbuster. Women need to constantly achieve perfection, the expectations are too harsh."Kani also weighed in, speaking of the industry's larger fear of failure as a contributing cause to the impossible standards placed on women filmmakers and actors. Kani Kusruti I believe that in art, we fundamentally need failure in order to progress. Women should be allowed to make bad films but we don't have the luxury to fail in this industry.This sentiment is not only affecting women in the industry but directors like Sinha, who tell female-led stories. In a time where executives and corporations are getting more creative control, Sinha echoed the frustrations of many others, stating that "In this business, you have to trust the maker. You cannot control how a film is made but executives think they can. Corporations only care about the excel sheet. Films are being signed off on the basis of data analysis.Anubhav Sinha Today, directors are losing their chairs. Every time I make a film, I think it's my last.Despite the obstacles faced in making a film like Assi, the cast and crew remain optimistic about the future. "Films like Assi are the next mainstream cinema", Sinha says. Assi released in theatres on February 20.'Assi' Review: Anubhav Sinha And Taapsee Pannu Leave Us Shaken