Cinema News - Frontline

Hindi cinema’s realism, its Tier 2 cinema, where a film titled Stree, or woman, can be made with male protagonists, is frail.

Counter Culture

Bollywood’s shallow realism

Hindi cinema’s current embrace of realism isn’t inclusive. It shows the same power structures as before, just dressed up as middle-class stories.

Prathyush Parasuraman

The actor Kollam Thulasi addresses a dharna by film and television artistes demanding the implementation of the Justice Hema Committee report, in Thiruvananthapuram on September 4. Thulasi was in the news recently for revelations about the exploitation of female actors in the Malayalam film industry.

Hema Committee report can be a catalyst for structural change in Malayalam cinema

The report’s release could facilitate the overhaul of workplace practices and address long-standing issues concerning women in all film industries.

The conspiracy of silence in Tamil and Kannada film industries

Hardly innocent of sexual abuse, they now face pressure to reform as the Hema Committee report forces uncomfortable truths into the spotlight.

Telugu cinema: A male stranglehold

A 2019 committee studied gender bias and sexual harassment in an industry controlled by patriarchal caste groups, but the report remains unpublished.

The press conference by the Women in Cinema Collective in Kochi on October 13, 2018. It was a watershed movement in the feminist labour history of Kerala, where women forefronted themselves on the basis of their work.

CINEMA — THE LEDE

Lights, camera, litigation: Hema Committee report spotlights Malayalam cinema’s gender battleground

The precarity of women and other marginalised communities in Malayalam cinema reflects Kerala’s hierarchical, feudal, and patriarchal society.

Aparna Eswaran,Silpa Satheesh,Arathi P.M.

Editor’s Note: A powerful, defining moment

The Hema Committee Report shows there is hope that the omertà enforced by powerful men in the film industry will be broken.

Pushing feminism’s frontiers in Kerala

From movie sets to courtrooms, educated women are transforming gender norms in Kerala, bringing to light the limits of institutional or state feminism

More stories from Cinema

It cannot get dirtier, it can only get cleaner: Bina Paul

National Award-winning editor and WCC co-founder believes that the feudal mindset existing in certain sections of the Malayalam film industry must go.

R.K. Radhakrishnan

Fans of the actor Vijay celebrating the release of his latest film, GOAT, on September 5 in Chennai.

Vijay’s GOAT is a film overburdened by its star

While this is not unusual for star films, what is exceptional is the limits to which GOAT stretches this.

Prathyush Parasuraman

It’s all about power and the entitlement to misuse it: actor Sreelekha Mitra

Actor speaks about rampant sexual harassment in Indian cinema, its normalisation across regional industries, and her personal encounters with abuse.

Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay

Bina Paul in Thiruvananthapuram in December 2016. Paul says that with the Hema Committee report, the sense that women exist in the film industry’s labour force and have to be acknowledged has become very important.

It cannot get dirtier, it can only get cleaner: Bina Paul

The National Award-winning editor believes that the feudal mindset existing in certain sections of the Malayalam film industry must go.

R.K. Radhakrishnan

Sreelekha Mitra says the Indian film industry has witnessed a #MeToo movement.

It’s all about power and the entitlement to misuse it: Sreelekha Mitra

Actor speaks about rampant sexual harassment in Indian cinema, its normalisation across regional industries, and her personal encounters with abuse.

Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay

Over the years, Deepika Padukone has carved a space for herself by portraying progressive characters with agency but her latest choices mark a departure from this trend.

Is Deepika Padukone losing her edge?

Her recent roles in big-budget films have brought enormous commercial success, but the nuanced characters that made her a star are missing.

The actor and director says that there is a need to form a legal framework as the industry is a combination of many professions.

The Hema Committee Report will make the Malayalam film industry safer: Revathi

The actor speaks about the WCC, the revelations made in the report, its fallouts, and potential solutions to ensure safety of women in cinema.

R.K. Radhakrishnan

The actress speaks about the WCC, the revelations made in the report, its fallouts, and potential solutions to ensure the safety of women in cinema.

The Hema Committee Report will make the Malayalam film industry safer: actor Revathi

The actor speaks about the WCC, the revelations made in the report, its fallouts, and potential solutions to ensure safety of women in cinema.

R.K. Radhakrishnan

The Dystopian Times by Appupen is about the findings of the Hema Committee report which revealed that the Malayalam film industry is controlled by a group of powerful male actors, producers, and directors

‘The Dystopian Times’ by Appupen

The latest edition of the Dystopian Times depicts Kangana Ranaut in her role of former PM India Gandhi during the Emergency of 1975

‘The Dystopian Times’ by Appupen

A section of the Kerala film industry is under scrutiny following revelations of sexual misconduct and discrimination against women made by the Hema Committee report.

Hema Committee report shows Kerala’s lauded film industry harbours a sinister underbelly

The truncated report, released by the State government after a glacial delay, exposes widespread sexual misconduct and gender-based discrimination.

M.G. Radhakrishnan

The much-awaited report of the Justice Hema Committee, the government-appointed panel in 2019 that studied issues faced by women in the Malayalam film industry, comprises explosive accounts of harassment, exploitation, and ill-treatment being faced by women.

Female actors face harassment in Malayalam film industry: Justice Hema Committee report

The commission says it was “shocked to hear the sexual harassment stories” revealed to it by women working in the industry.

Frontline News Desk

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