‘Gender Ratio In Indian Film Industry Stands At 6.2 Males To Every Female’
As a part of the audience, we have witnessed a trend that is slowly emerging where in more and more women centric movies are coming up, with strong performances by the protagonists and even stronger scripts.
This decade has witnessed movies that have had performances by female actors who have carried the film forward all on their shoulders.
Movies like ‘The Dirty Picture’ (2011) and ‘Kahaani’ (2012) had stellar performances by the critically acclaimed Vidya Balan. A movie like ‘Mardaani’ (2014) saw actor Rani Mukherji taking up the charge of the movie. The deeply touching self-discovery story of ‘Queen’ is another such example. ‘Anaarkali of Aarah’ and ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ are other such examples of movie stories, revolving around women issues.
The movie ‘Pink’ that released only last year (2016) revolved around the story of three women and how and why sexual consent is optimal. Made on an all-inclusive budget of Rs 26 crore, the movie managed to do a business of Rs 68 crore till the end of its 4th weekend at the domestic box office. It is generally believed that such movies never end up making decent collection figures at the box office but this general perception was broken by ‘Pink’.
Another issue that is commonly come across is the dearth of female directors in the industry. According to a report by Geena Davis Institute that was released at ‘Global Symposium on Gender in Media’, the gender ratio in India’s film industry stands at 6.2 males to every female and only one in 10 directors is a woman.
There is a lack of women in the industry in key positions that is required to actually make a change. Movies have the power to influence the masses and with movies like, ‘Pink’, ‘Anaarkali of Aarah’ and the upcoming ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’, the urban audiences might sway but a gradual change is needed surely.
