Female Principals

Slow, silent, yet definitive. That’s how the change crept in. In the male-dominated, restrictive world of Hindi cinema, young women quietly took over the reins in diverse technical fields: direction, choreography, set design, script, costumes, sound, camera, lights, editing or music direction. Choreographer Farah Khan made the transition to directing films easily and is counted in the A-list of Bollywood directors. Zoya Akhtar’s Luck By Chance and Reema Kagti’s Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd too were decent successes. The past few months alone have seen three women make their directorial debuts: Kiran Rao with Dhobi Ghat, Bela Negi with Daayen Ya Baayen and Anusha Rizvi with Peepli [Live]. The change has swept even a ‘masculine’ field like cinematography, where the roll of credits boast female names: Deepti Gupta for Honeymoon Travels, Zindagi Na Milegi Dubara, Savita Singh for Phoonk, 404. Why, Hetal Dedhia has the distinction of being the only female gaffer (head of electricity and lighting).

Back then, you could count the women technicians on your fingers: Bhanu Athaiya who won an Oscar for costume design in Gandhi, art director Sharmishtha Roy, choreographer Saroj Khan, editor Renu Saluja and Arti Bajaj, scriptwriter Honey Irani and music composer Usha Khanna. There were a few filmmakers too, like Sai Paranjpe, Kalpana Lajmi and later Nandita Das and Sooni Taraporevala. “But most of them were in the art, alternate or documentary circuit,” says Bela Negi. “Now they are a part of the mainstream.” Screenwriter Anuradha Tiwari was the only one from the ’95 batch of Jamia’s mass communication course to head for Bombay; the rest of her batchmates opted to work on documentaries and television. “Today, everyone instantly moves to Bollywood,” she says.

The industry itself is changing to accommodate women; the producers, financiers, exhibitors are no longer rigid about what a woman can or cannot do. “I had heard a lot of tales about discrimination against women but never encountered it personally,” says editor Namrata Rao, who has films like Love Sex Aur Dhokha and Band Baajaa Baraat behind her. “In fact,” claims Negi, “most filmmakers prefer women assistant directors because they are more organised, dependable, meticulous and responsible.”

Women also take naturally to some fields, like editing and writing. Rao thinks women make better editors. “Editing a film is akin to adopting a child and bringing it to life—women are better at nurturing,” she says. “Even in Hollywood, all big editors are women,” adds Hemanti Sarkar. She thinks a male director and female editor team up well. “A balance of thought is achieved,” she says. “Women can help bring out what a director may have overlooked while shooting.” There are a few realms, though, that women are yet to explore in Bollywood. Can you, for example, think of any woman composer, apart from a Sneha Khanwalkar who gave music for Dibakar Banerjee’s Oye Lucky and LSD?

But if you thought these women want to stick to making or working in films dealing with women’s issues or expressing women’s sensibilities, think again. Zoya Akhtar’s second film, Zindagi Na Milegi Dubara, is centred on three men who go on a road trip to find their true selves. Bhavna Talwar made her debut with Dharm, the story of a pandit in Benares, who fights the fanatical forces of Hindu religion to adopt a Muslim child. Her second film, Happi, is a tribute to Charlie Chaplin, Pankaj Kapur playing the desi Chaplin.

And even if they are telling women’s stories, they want to go beyond the usual suffering and sacrifice. As Anuradha Tiwari says, “It’s time we got into woman stuff that’s fun.”