A female star remarked at a seminar, that when she started acting a few years ago, there were hardly any women on the sets, besides the actresses; now the sets are overrun by women – assistants, cinematographers, stylists, choreographers, set designers. Off the sets, there is an increasing number of script writers, editors, costume designers, production designers, music composers, computer graphics creators. There is no known action director –though there are female stunt artistes– but the number of directors and producers is steadily going up, though not as fast as it should. In an ecosystem where box-office returns are the only criterion to measure worth, women directors lag behind because their films are not always blockbusters. But where it comes to creativity, women are making their mark on the world of cinema – the latest being Payal Kapadia, whose film All We Imagine As Light has been winning international awards since its triumph at Cannes.
It is never easy for women to enter a male-dominated industry, and even tougher to get to compete on a level playing field. But those who dared… won:
A look at women who broke through the glass ceiling of Bollywood:
Saraswatibai Phalke:
The wife of Dadasaheb Phalke, known as the father of Indian cinema—his film Raja Harishchandra being the first Indian feature film, she was the unsung financier (she sold her jewellery to fund his dream) and editor, reportedly cutting his film on the kitchen table. But as it happens so often, the work of wives is never given due credit.
Durgabai Kamat:
At a time when men played female roles in films, because women were not allowed to be in this ‘disreputable’ profession, Durgabai Kamat. She was introduced by Dadasaheb Phalke in his second film, Mohini Bhasmasur (1913) as the leading lady Parvati, while her daughter Kamlabai played the role of Mohini, as the first female child actress of Indian cinema. She happens to be the maternal grandmother of actor Chandrakant Gokhale and great-grandmother of actor Vikram Gokhale.
Fatma Begum:
She began her career on the Urdu stage and later shifted to cinema. In 1926, she established Fatma Films which later became known as Victoria-Fatima Films in 1928, where she wrote, directed and acted in her own films. She is credited with being the first female director in Indian cinema, with her 1926 film Bulbul-e-Paristan. She went on to direct many other films, her last being the Goddess of Luck in 1929.
Saraswati Devi:
Born Khorshed Minocher-Homji in a musically inclined Parsi family, she is considered to be the first female music composer in Indian cinema, along with Jaddanbai (mother of actress Nargis). Saraswati Devi was hired by Himansu Rai of Bombay Talkies to head the studio’s music department. She is best known for her score in the hit Achut Kanya, and her song Mein Ban ki Chiriyra Banke Ban Ban Bolun Re is an all-time hit.
Devika Rani:
Coming from an illustrious Bengali family with Rabindranath Tagore as an uncle, and educated abroad, she married filmmaker and actor Himansu Rai and started acting in his films. Together, they established the legendary Bombay Talkies, and she was a much-admired boss. Called the First Lady of Indian Cinema, she went on to be the first recepient, in 1969, of the government’s Dadasaheb Phalke Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Bhanu Athaiya:
With over 60 years in the movie business, Bhanu Athaiya was possibly the first female costume designer in Hindi films. Born in Kolhapur when it was a rich centre of culture, Bhanu studied art in Mumbai and started sketching designs for women’s magazines. Raj Kapoor and other filmmakers of the time noticed her talent and asked her to design costumes for films. She did the costumes for such films as Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Ganga Jumna, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, right up to Lagaan and Swades. She won the Oscar for her work on Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi, two national awards for Lekin and Lagaan and several other honours. Her work is distinguished for meticulous research and attention to detail. For period films, she had no equal.
BR Vijayalakshmi:
The daughter of filmmaker BR Panthulu, she started her movie career as an assistant to cinematographer Ashok Kumar, and eventually went independent in 1985, with the Tamil film Chinna Veedu. The opening titles of the K Bhagyaraj film, Veedu, declared in Tamil: Debutant cinematographer. Pride of womanhood. First Tamil woman. (source: Scroll.in). Subsequently, she did the camerawork for over 22 films and is credited as Asia’s first woman cinematographer.
Renu Saluja:
When it was unthinkable for Bollywood to have female technicians, a trained at the Pune Film Institute Renu Saluja crashed the male bastion of editing. Initially she edited the films for her FTII buddies like Vidhu Vinod Chopra (she was also married to him), Kundan Shah, Saeed Mirza and others. Later she did films like Ardh Satya and Bandit Queen. She won National Awards for her work in Parinda, Dharavi, Sardar, and Godmother. All her directors give her credit for understanding the medium and transforming their work with her genius at the editing table. She died of cancer in 2002, but opened the door for other women editors and thanks to her diligence, now a female cutting films is not an oddity.
Saroj Khan:
When the portly dance masters ruled Hindi cinema, a young Saroj Khan clawed her way in and went on to become a successful choreographer having done films too numerous to list and won many awards. In fact, it is after her creative and extravagantly choreographed dance numbers, Filmfare had to introduce an award for Best Choreography with Saroj Khan as the first winner for Ek Do Teen in Tezaab. She won it for the next two years for Chaalbaaz and Sailaab. Actresses like Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai owe their initial success to Saroj Khan’s hit dance numbers. She paved the way for other women choreographers like Farah Khan, Rekha Prakash and Vaibhavi Merchant, but remains the pioneer.
Farah Khan:
Before the success of Farah Khan’s Main Hoon Na, no female director had been able to get a huge box-office hit. Though women filmmakers like Aparna Sen, Sai Paranjpye, Kalpana Lajmi, Tanuja Chandra and others were making films, none of them were money-spinners. Farah Khan started her career as a choreographer with Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander. She brought a fresh and youthful style to her dance numbers, which got stars like Aamir and Shah Rukh Khan dancing to her directions. The friendship eventually led to her making her successful debut as a filmmaker. Farah Khan is among the first winners in the male race of commercial Hindi cinema.
