Women power at Indywood

As part of the sessions at the second day of the ‘Indywood Film Carnival’ at Ramoji Film City on Saturday, an all women panel spoke on the topic ‘Representation Of Women In The Film Industry’.

Rupa Dash, CEO, World Woman Foundation, Sonja Prosenc, Writer & Film Director, Slovenia, Srishti Arya, Film Producer, Namrata Goyal, Senior Management, Jet Airways were present in the discussion, which was joined by cast of ‘Pink’, Andrea Tariang and Kirti Kulhari.

The opening remarks mentioned that today around 75 per cent of crew members in the industry are men. In the last 20 years three-fourth of the members in all Indian movies have been men.

Namrata Goyal said that there has been a huge transformation from the 50s till now. “I think the key is education. The “main chup rahoongi” syndrome has vanished from the movies now. Women have a position of power and they exercise decision making. Films like ‘Piku’, ‘Queen’, ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ and ‘Pink’ are fabulous examples of how the representation of women in Indian Cinema has transformed.”

Srishti Arya said that patriarchy is a big issue not just for cinema but even for the society, and women in a sense feed that by not standing up for themselves. “The transformation has been slow and glacial so far. Women should support each other and help them to stand up for themselves,” she said.

“Generally, we do not have a collaborative work culture. However, 2015 was historical that 34 per cent of women were lead characters and most films had scripts written by women,” she mentioned. The session also discussed the challenges faced by women in all walks of like and how men can be a part of the solution by supporting the women around them.