Women technicians co-opt male bastion in Bollywood

Women technicians co-opt male bastion in BollywoodMumbai, Dec 23 : After entertaining the audiences with their acting prowess on-screen, more and more women venture in the fields of production, direction, cinematography to carve niche for themselves in Bollywood.

Names such as Savita Singh, Sharmistha Roy, Amala Papuri and Fawzia Fatima may not be familiar to most of us but they have begun to convert male-dominated areas into their own.

Savita Singh, who worked with the ace filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma as director of photography in his recent release "Phoonk" has opted for cinematography as a career option.

"I think he (Ram Gopal Varma) has introduced so many technicians and so many actors. He is a superb director to work with and I have learn so much from him," said Singh.

Other women technicians who are making their mark in Bollywood are Amala in audiography, Meenal Agrawal in production design and Hetal Dedhia in the lighting department.

There have been the instances of many women like Ruby Meyers (Sulochana), Devika Rani and Mary Ann Evans (Fearless Nadia) making their foray in Bollywood in the past when women in general were forced to play second fiddle to men in India.

Women Directors like Raksha Mistry who made her debut in Bollywood as an Assistant Director in 1996 with the film ''Raja Hindustani'' said that the mind set of the people has changed today and that''s the reason that more and more women are venturing into this field.

"As a female director we are not having any gender boundaries to conquer as such when you go on a set you are basically just a director. It''s irrelevant whether you are a male or a female," Mistry added. (ANI)