Creepy film industry

Illustration/Uday Mohite

In 1937, V Shantaram made Duniya Na Mane/Kunku, about Nirmala (Shanta Apte), a poor, young orphan woman, who is trapped into marrying a rich old widower. But so spirited is she, that she refuses to consummate the marriage. The guilty old man eventually commits suicide, leaving a note asking Nirmala to remarry.

Fast forward to 2022, 85 years later, when we are in fact going ‘fast backward' to the caveman era. We have Shanker Raman's Love Hostel, in which a newlywed interfaith couple, Ahmed and Jyoti, are on the run because Jyoti's grandmother wants to ensure her honour killing. Another young Indian woman, in a web series, is literally beheaded. Real life is not far. Last month, police revealed that Aftab Poonawalla hacked his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar's body into 35 pieces in Delhi, before disposing them of. They said Poonawalla had prepared for it by watching a lot of crime movies and Dexter, a series about an American serial killer. And of course, there's the horrific Kerala case where a top actress was sexually assaulted by a gang in 2017, allegedly arranged by top Malayali actor Dileep. After the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) was spontaneously formed to support the survivor and fight for women's rights to a safe working environment in the film industry, Dileep was in judicial custody for nearly three months, before being released on bail. Responding to WCC's public interest litigation, the Kerala High Court ruled in March 2022 that all Malayalam film production houses must have an internal complaints committee to investigate cases under the ‘POSH Act' for the prevention of sexual harassment of women at the workplace. Meanwhile, many WCC members were ‘punished' by being denied roles, shamed and trolled by the deeply misogynistic Malayalam film industry. And Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has so far completely suppressed the Hema Committee Report, submitted in 2019, that investigated gender issues in the Malayalam film industry.

There are similar, unflattering revelations emerging from a study of Bollywood/Hindi cinema, that are fortunately more accessible. The key findings were already shared in a Master Class ‘Breaking the Screen Ceiling: Gender and Work in Hindi Cinema,' at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI-Goa) last month. It was part of a research project, Lights, Camera and Time for Action: Recasting a Gender Equality-compliant Hindi cinema, conducted by the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and funded by the US Consulate General, Mumbai. It is a ground-breaking, quantitative research study on gender and work both on and offscreen in Hindi cinema. 1,930 characters in 35 films were analysed for their onscreen gender representation, types of roles, occupations, etc. The study also explored representation of women crew in film departments and the larger film ecosystem. 'Disclaimer: I'm on the advisory committee of the project and participated in the master class. The participants in the master class were the project team from TISS, Dr Lakshmi Lingam, Prof Shilpa Phadke and Rashmi Lamba; filmmaker Pushan Kripalani (Goldfish, The Threshold), and myself.

The study examined top 25 box office hits of 2019 and 10 women oriented films from 2012-2019. Of the 1,930 characters studied, only 23.3 per cent women (cis-female) had roles in box office toppers, rising to 36 per cent in women oriented films. Box office toppers showed barely 16 per cent women in the workplace, stereotypically in care work, media, healthcare or journalism, whereas men's occupations were law enforcement, politics/government, crime or armed forces. While there were 13-15 per cent women crew in both box office and women-oriented films, women in core departments like cinematography, editing and sound, are an appalling one per cent. Key findings: Women oriented films have more women in the crew and as heads of department. There are far fewer women in the film eco-system, including unions and boards, and they receive fewer awards each year. We need to implement powerful policies for gender equality. Will Bollywood - and Indian cinema - have the courage to do so?

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist.
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com