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January 11 - June 17, 2023
Women tend to downplay their achievements. People would be surprised to know that even I have low self-esteem. I never talk about how many hits I have delivered and that nobody can push me around. Women don’t speak like that.
Till 2014, women in India were not allowed to work as make-up artists in films.
The CCMAA told her to apply for a hairdressing card instead. The association would allow women to work as hairdressers—but make-up? No, that was for men only. The rule had been in place since the CCMAA’s inception in 1955. According to the union, if it allowed women to do make-up, male make-up artists would lose their jobs.
Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE),
She approached the National Commission for Women (NCW) in New Delhi, which describes itself as ‘an apex national level organization in India with the mandate of protecting and promoting the interests of women’. Set up in 1992, part of its remit is to review the constitutional and legal safeguards for women.
‘This is the mindset with which society works—if a woman works, she will be working at the cost of a man and ruining livelihoods. That always disturbs me,’ says Kalra.
Charu became the first Indian woman to become a member of the CCMAA.
Guneet had been the CEO of Anurag Kashyap Films Pvt. Ltd (AKFPL) for four years when Kashyap took a sudden decision to shut it down.
Is Bollywood still a boys’ club? She pauses before answering, ‘There are a lot of boys.’ Then pauses again. ‘I have grown to realize that it is a boys’ club. I am not a man. I don’t smoke. I have always envied people who go on smoking breaks—so many deals are closed out there.’
The fact that the number of women in the film industry is growing is partly because of supportive men, she says. ‘Look at Anurag, he would put me in front of the line each time.’
Hungarian short film You, directed by Istvan Szabo.
Lawrence of Arabia is the work of British editor Anne Coates, who also edited Erin Brockovich and Fifty Shades of Grey. Director Martin Scorsese had a long partnership with his editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, who is tied with American film editor Barbara McLean for the most Academy Award nominations for Best Film Editing (seven each). Schoonmaker won three times—for Raging Bull, The Aviator and The Departed. This category is still dominated by male winners, as is most of the film industry worldwide.
Reena Mohan is an award-winning editor who focuses on documentary films.
Renu Saluja, a towering personality who worked on both art house and commercial cinema for thirty years till her death in 2000.
Namrata Rao is the editor of Love Sex Aur Dhokha and Band Baaja Baaraat. Dev. D and Jab We Met are Aarti Bajaj’s work. Peepli Live and English Vinglish are edited by Hemanti Sarkar.
Of the 581 stunt artists registered with the Movie Stunt Artist Association (MSAA) in Mumbai, only twelve are women, according to Aejaz Gulab, the group’s general secretary.
They include Saroj Mohini Nayyar, wife of late composer O.P. Nayyar, who wrote ‘Pritam Aan Milo’ in 1955 for the film, Mr. and Mrs. 55 by Guru Dutt. Poet Maya Govind carried the baton forward, writing for 450 films including M.F. Hussain’s Gaja Gamini and Main Khiladi Tu Anari among others. Folk singer Ila Arun has written songs too and recently, rapper Hard Kaur has brought female ‘swag’ into the industry.
It is widely reported that Bandit Queen, released in 1992, was the first Indian film to include a casting director in its closing credits. It acknowledged Tigmanshu Dhulia, a screenwriter, producer and casting director.
She has also earned her stripes as the first woman in India to film underwater for Kiran Rao’s 2010 film, Dhobi Ghat.
B.R. Vijayalakshmi was the pioneer, becoming the first Asian woman to helm a camera in 1984. Since then, more women have joined the field. Priya’s contemporaries include Neha Parti Matiyani (Waiting, Badrinath Ki Dulhania), Savita Singh (Hawaizaada), and Fowzia Fathima (Mitr: My Friend), among others. In 2010, Anjuli Shukla became the first Indian woman to win a National Award for cinematography for the Malayalam film Kutty Srank.
In Hollywood, women comprised 3 per cent of the composers working on the top 250 grossing films of 2017.
Jaddanbai in the 1930s and Saraswati Devi in the 1950s were accomplished composers. They were followed by Usha Khanna (of Dil Deke Dekho fame) who had a prolific career composing music from 1959 through the early 2000s. Sneha is only the second woman, after Usha, to receive a Filmfare nomination for best music director in 2012 for her work on the Gangs of Wasseypur series.
UTV was an ‘indie’ production house founded by the visionary Ronnie, his wife Zarina and Deven Khote in 1990.
‘I remember reading the Dev.D script and I didn’t connect with it. It was one of those really polarizing films which you either loved or hated, and that film taught me how to think about reading a script in the beginning and understanding where it could go in terms of storytelling.’
first Hindi film to make over $300 million, with China contributing more than double its earnings. Till date, Dangal is one of the top twenty films by revenue in China.
‘He came out with funny descriptions of the film, announcing in crowded marketplaces that it is a mile long strip of 58,000 little pictures put together. He offered prizes to ticket buyers. The audience started coming in and the movie went on to make money.’
‘When it came to integrating the film into general entertainment channels, into dance shows, reality shows, we were very sure we didn’t want to go on set to sing, dance and judge,’ Shikha says. ‘It didn’t reflect the film we had made.’
