Sandalwood needs to produce more women-centric movies: Panel at BIFF

Bengaluru: A panel session with actor-politician, Ramya, cinematographer, Preetha Jayaraman, and director-screenwriter B V Nandini Reddy was the highlight at BIFFes on Thursday.

The session delved into the evolving landscape of women’s representation in the film industry titled “Women in Cinema: Challenges, Triumph and the road ahead”, moderated by senior journalist Latha Srinivasan. The panel discussed the prevailing issues concerning women in cinema like pay disparity and the “iron leg” tag. Ramya spoke about how she did not receive a script for her debut film, “Abhi,” and was treated only as a prop in the film. 

They expressed their disappointment with the Kannada film on continuing to show women in poor light. The masses are not ready to watch complex women characters here unlike the Malayalam audiences that highlight women’s empowerment, gender equality and societal issues in films like “The Great Indian Kitchen”, “Uyare” and “How Old Are You”.

Ramya said that it’s the love of the people that is behind her present success. “They make me want to be back on screen.” she shared, building up anticipation among her eager fans in the audience, while also hinting she is open to work on OTT platforms and may come back on the screen soon.