Women filmmakers push for equality, seek more hands-on approach in creative process

Panaji: Indian films still need to come a long way in terms of involvement of women in the creative processes of filmmaking. Even today, it is mostly at the post-production stage, said female filmmakers and researchers, speaking at a session on ‘Gender Participation in Hindi Cinema’ held at the 53rd International Film Festival of India (Iffi), organised along with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
“Women are mostly present in the post-production phase, while their presence is comparatively low in creative decision-making process. In fact, the nation has had only four women Union ministers of information and broadcasting in the last 75 years, only four female chairpersons of the Central Board of Film Certification in the last 72 years and only 29% female board members in the last 13 years,” said professor Lakshmi Lingam, dean of school for media and cultural studies at TISS.
The TISS research team backed their statements with a quantitative study carried out on both on and off screen involvement of women in Hindi cinema, covering 1,930 characters in 35 films. It analysed the films for their gender representation on screen, types of roles played by characters in various genders, their occupations and other parameters. The study also explored the most popular departments of filmmaking for women crew members and the share of women winning film awards.
“The purpose of the study is to initiate a conversation with the industry. A lot needs to be done to bring equality. Many films show that intimacy gets initiated only by men and it has no idea of consent, it shows illegal ways being used by actors to get consent, which send the wrong message to society,” said Lingam.
National award winning film critic Meenakshi Shedde said that after an actress was assaulted in Kerala, the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) was spontaneously formed to support the survivor and to fight for womens’ rights to a safe working environment. But many in Kerala film bodies and mainstream Kerala film industry punished the WCC members by not giving them roles, isolating, shaming and trolling them.
Shilpa Phadke, a documentary filmmaker, said that an increased presence of women in the film industry’s workforce could bring about a change in the comfort levels in the work place and change power structures.
“Every room I walked in to as a cinematographer was drenched with misogyny and I didn’t want to be a part of it and that’s why I chose independent cinema,” said Pushan Kripalani, director of film GoldFish.