“City of Stars…Are you shining just for me…”
croons Ryan Gosling. It’s a sultry afternoon in Chennai and Aruna Rakhee is
watching ‘La La land’ for the second time with her friends Jayashree and
Pavithra. She dips into a tub of popcorn, her first meal of the day, when her
phone buzzes. It’s a call from Mumbai. She rushes out of the theatre, nodding
her head and trembling with excitement. An associate director, with more than ten
years experience in the industry, Aruna has been asked to fly out the next day,
to assist an acclaimed Director. She barely
has a few hours to pack her bags and apologise to her father that she won’t be joining
his 70th birthday celebrations.
Soon, Pavithra and Jayashree join her outside.
Twenty seven year old Pavithra Kumar is the Executive Producer of Rajnikanth’s
Enthiran-2.0.After a gruelling night shooting schedule she is exhausted and
decides to go home and crash. Jayashree
Lakshmi Narayanan, Kerala State Award winner, Production Designer and creator
of the arty room of Dulquer Salman in the Malayalam super hit ‘Charlie’, offers
to drive them back. While she drives, she uses the time to do one more phone interview.
Three empty seats and a tub of popcorn wait. La La Land plays on.
 |
| Pavithra-Jayashree-Aruna |
Thanks to the recent spurt in media and communication
courses across the country, many young women, in the 20’s are opting to chase
their passion for cinema, starting out assistants to leading directors,
cinematographers and the like before carving a niche for themselves. The Indian
Film Industry, a traditional male bastion is an extremely stressful place of
work, with several careers and hoards of money at stake and eggshells of egos
to tread around. Most film projects have rigorous shooting schedules that may
run for sixteen hours a day, spanning across several months, and sometimes in
unsuitable conditions. Also, an average
film crew has a staggering gender disparity. 400 men – 3 women, including the
lead actress.
In the backdrop of the recent abduction and
alleged rape of an actor in Kochi, how conducive is the wok environment of
these young girls?
Safety
concerns
In all the years that I have worked here, I
have never had any issues
with safety,” quips Aruna. “ I think it’s a
matter of which team you choose to work with. While some make sure the female
workers are dropped after a night shoot and provide decent accommodation, some
tend to overlook since they’ve never worked with women.” Since shooting spots
are abuzz with people, the girls do not feel insecure or threatened. Jayashree, who has worked in Bollywood prior
to her stardom in southern cinema, believes that Bombay is a much safer place
for women to work in. Statistics show that Bollywood has a greater ratio of
women working on the sets, and are provided with all the facilities that they
require. Mumbai’s active nightlife and efficient public transport is a plus
too.
Battling
stereotypes
In the south, a woman is generally
perceived as a ‘burden’, a responsibility and an added cost to production house.
(Having to provide a separate hotel room/toilets for instance). Women are
viewed as the ‘weaker sex’ who will ‘”cry on sets” or “demand to go home early”
and cannot deal with the both physical and mental stress that filmmaking demands.
“We receive a lot of flak, that we women will anyway drop out, get married and
have kids” chimes in Ranjani Naresh, former assistant to cinematographer PC Sreeram.
Women are also not associated with technical competence. “ Though I was trained
in the field, on my first day, light annas asked me if knew how the lights
worked”. Ranjani’s colleagues were shocked that she was not from art/costumes,
departments labelled as a woman’s forte. In a land that produces around 1600
films annually, there are only a handful of independent women cinematographers.
Juhi Sharma, Documentary and Ad filmmaker attributes this to the view that
cinematography is a physically intensive profession.“One of the worst situations was when a
leading cinematographer from the industry was looking for a 'female assistant'.
When I enquired as to how the assistant's gender mattered, I was told that my
main job would have to be to tell the heroines to adjust their clothes and open
a few buttons. I felt disgusted.”
Women
in demand
Interestingly, women Assistant Directors
and Executive Producers are a sought after breed. Directors like Mani Ratnam,
Gautham Vasudev Menon, and A.L Vijay are known to request for female ADs for
their work ethic and to add a fresh perspective to the film making process. Moreover
actresses prefer having a female AD to interact with and coach them with
dialogues.
Pavithra has a lot on her plate. Enthiran
2.0, with a budget of $4Billion is touted to be the most expensive film ever in
India. As the Executive Producer of film she is part of the daily shooting
process and keeps a tab on the budget, ensuring the smooth flow of money. “I was working with Ad film maker Manav Menon
for a while. He noticed that I had the flair for coordinating and managing both
money and people. He suggested this job to me.”
Siddhi Pujara, another Executive Producer,
works for Eros Cinemas in Chennai; having previously worked with the Shahrukh Khan
owed Red Chillies Pvt Ltd in Mumbai.
Money
Matters
The industry is an uphill climb for anyone
and money is initially hard to come by. Though many of them admit that the pay
may not match the creative ability, gender discrimination in payments hardly
occurs.
Man or woman, the person who knows how to
market himself better or negotiate lands the better deal. Siddhi adds that
woman should never “feel shy to demand the money they deserve.” Siddhi and Jayashree
who have worked in several Hindi films, reckon that Bollywood ensures equality,
that production Houses like Red Chillies, Excel Entertainment and Dharma
Productions are equal opportunity givers
One of the biggest inspirations for these
young women is the make-up artist Banu Bashyam better known as the magician who
radically transformed an aging Rajinikanth into a youthful looking superstar in
‘Shivaji the Boss’. The ‘Indian Make- up Artists and Hair stylists Union’
comprised of 800 men make-up artists and only 3 women. Women only became
hairdressers. Banu fought a long and hard battle in the Supreme Court to get
her union card, despite working in the industry for more than a decade.
The
big break
In a scene From ‘Dear Zindagi’, a
cinematographer Alia Bhatt is seen ecstatic after bagging the spot in a big
project. However, she is soon plagued by doubts, if the opportunity came by for
her talent or her supposed physical attractiveness. The greatest challenge for
a woman and the loudest complaint is they are seldom taken seriously. “I have
to work 10 times harder than an average guy to get the same opportunity, to say
that I have the talent and that I am here to stay”, opines Aruna. The initial
opportunity- the years of being an assistant- and the big break, getting a
mentor who hones their talent and helming a project independently is a long and
arduous journey.
The
tough get going
Obstacles may be
many, but there is nothing that cannot be surmounted by a headstrong nature. Once
an opportunity comes knocking these women stress on the need to be assertive
and give the vibe that they can’t be messed with. “Men in the industry
often tend to take advantage of women who are docile so it is imperative that a
woman learns to take charge and stands for herself. This also helps in bringing
out the best work from fellow co-workers and getting the work done in a disciplined
manner”, advises Siddhi.
Work-life balance
Social life is almost nil. Friends are often from the
same industry . And marriages are delayed. When they do get married, most girls
choose a partner from the same industry, primarily because the odds of meeting
someone are higher and also since the person can relate to their profession.
All of them agree, that only someone who understands how hectic and
unpredictable a project can be can make the relationship work. Although most
families initially oppose their daughters’ career move, most reconcile over
time. Having a supportive family is the key to their successs. “When you already
face so much of stress in the shooting spot, you don’t want to come back home
and be stressed again” concludes Jayashree.
The recent abduction and alleged rape of a popular
actress has shocked the Industry, but
the girls opine that it is definitely much safer for women who work behind the
scenes than the heroines,though they may
have access to a private vanity van and better security arrangements. The
patriarchal industry continues to judge heroines as ‘easy’ and ‘available’.
Yesteryear Tamil/Telugu superstar Bhanumathi
Ramakrishna was a multi-lingual actress/director/music director/producer/singer
and song writer. Known for her courage and forthrightness, she was also the
only female studio owner in the country. Bhanumathi was revered by all her
co-stars including the iconic M.G.Ramachandran, with whom she starred in more
than fourteen films. In one of her interviews she mentions how the heroes were
scared to hold her hand. “Talent scares people.”
The path maybe rocky and the future
hazy, but these young women are ready to storm through, aided by their passion
and tons of talent. No adversity or
gender construct is bigger than what is dearest to them;their art.
Here’s
to the ones who dream, foolish as they may seem.
-Originally published on March 6th 2017 in thenewsminute.com
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