Mumbai, Dec 23 (IANS): Actor Suniel Shetty has said that women should be given equal importance in the film industry like in every other working sector in the country.

Shetty was interacting with the media at the launch of Specta Eyewear Boutique on Saturday in Mumbai.

On Tuesday, an 18-member panel, including Akshay Kumar, Karan Johar, Ajay Devgn, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Ritesh Sidhwani and CBFC chief Prasoon Joshi, met the Prime Minister to discuss how to take the entertainment industry to the next stage.

Recently, Dia Mirza expressed her displeasure on twitter asking the reason for women's absence from the Bollywood delegation of producers and actors that recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss issues faced by the film industry.

Shetty agreed with Mirza, saying "Absolutely... I feel when you are giving importance to women in every other sector then, we should give them equal importance in film industry as well.

"I think their meeting with Prime Minister Modi was impromptu that is why there wasn't inclusion of a female member from film industry. But I am sure that wasn't their conscious decision."

A few days ago, veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah landed in a controversy when he termed Indian cricket skipper Virat Kohli as the "worst behaved player" as he was involved in a heated argument with Australian skipper Tim Paine in the ongoing India-Australia Test series.

After that statement, few media outlets quoted Suniel Shetty saying Virat is an aggressive player and "I don't agree with Naseeruddin Shah's statement."

Shetty said, "It's probably one individual who twists and turns, edits and presents the quote the way they want to, that makes the difference. I never made any kind of statement against Naseer bhai (Naseeruddin Shah). I like Virat (Kohli) as a cricketer and everyone has their own opinions.