Bagging the Oscar trophy on March 12, producer Guneet Monga said, “To all the women watching. The future is audacious and the future is here. Let’s go!” She was only echoing what the glorious win for ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ at the Academy Awards meant for women in the industry.
One of the most endearing moments from the recently-concluded Oscars is the victory for ‘The Elephant Whisperers’. Alongside the thunderous response for Naatu Naatu from RRR that danced its way to bag another International award with an Academy for Best Original Song, the documentary helmed by Kartiki Gonsalves and produced by Guneet Monga wrote a glorious chapter in history. It became the first-ever production from India to bag the coveted award, with the trophy in the Best Documentary Short Film category. And, two women created the Oscar glory.
Why it spells change?
The entertainment industry is riddled with problems like a wide gender gap, lack of pay parity, and inequality.
Women’s representation has been low in India and globally, though at varying levels. Hollywood has been waging unending battles with gender stereotypes and fewer women across departments. The Academy Awards has witnessed just three women winning in the ‘Best director’ category in the last nine decades and more after seven nominations.
In India, a study by Ormax Media and digital platform Film Companion found that women held only 8% of the head of department (HOD) roles in Indian films in 2019 and 2020. The report titled ‘O Womaniya’ covered women’s representation in departments like direction, writing, cinematography, editing, and production design.
The report also said if Bollywood had 16% women in HOD roles, Southern films were way below at just 1%. Most films in this period also failed ‘The Bechdel Test’, an international measure for women’s representation.
The role models are here
For gender diversity to be a reality, any sphere needs role models. Indian films have not been devoid of women pathbreakers. There was ‘the first lady of Indian cinema’ Devika Rani running a film studio, identifying star talent in the 40s, and the legendary Anjali Devi, a successful producer. Jaddanbai Hussain and Saraswati Devi scored music in the visibly male-dominated domain in the 30s. Sai Paranjpye donned the director’s hat creating pathbreaking cinema alongside Shyam Benegal and Basu Chatterjee.
However, a few have capitalized on the space these pioneers carved out; there have been sporadic bursts of women taking over the mantle. The need to increase the tribe creating, narrating, and being part of the stories cannot be more evident.
‘The Elephant Whisperers’ focused on the lives of tribal people and their harmonious coexistence with nature and wildlife—a story of the underrepresented and marginalized in a vast country like India.
It is a shining testimony to the need to have more women as they bring forth untold stories.
And to reiterate Guneet’s words: “the time is (indeed) now.” To change the stereotypes, to add variety to the storylines, and to nurture the womanpower.
When ISRO succeeded in putting a satellite in Orbit around Mars, a group of saree-clad women with flowers in their hair celebrating the success wowed the world as it showed them India had women scientists working in space projects and their control rooms (though the women in the photograph were in the administration roles). An equivalent defining moment for entertainment has been the two ecstatic women — Guneet and Kartiki— as they lifted their trophies, ushering in all the women out there to find their space.
