This year’s International Emmy Awards proved to be a momentous one for Indians. Shefali Shah and Jim Sarbh bagged nominations in the Best Performance by an Actress category for Delhi Crime 2 and Best Performance by an Actor category for Rocket Boys, respectively. Radhika Madan, on the other hand, was the youngest jury member at the Emmys while Vir Das and Ektaa R Kapoor brought the trophies home. Das won the Best Unique Comedy award for his Netflix special Vir Das: Landing, whereas Kapoor created history as she became India’s first woman filmmaker to bag the prestigious Directorate Award.
In an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, the filmmaker opens up on shattering the glass ceiling and what it means for every woman in Indian cinema who has defied every rule in the male-dominated industry. “I think women in Indian art, media, OTT, television, and films have been usually marginalised with thoughts like ‘yeh women-oriented film hai’ or this is a women-oriented subject or that an actress can’t lead a film,” she says.
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Earlier this year, Guneet Monga brought the second Oscar to India as her documentary film The Elephant Whisperers emerged as the winner at the 95th Academy Awards in the Documentary Short Subject category. For the unversed, Kapoor and Monga have joined hands to produce films like Pagglait and Kathal, both of which opened to wide critical acclaim. And now with the exposure they’ve received on the global stage, Kapoor reveals that she now plans on collaborating with Monga on international projects too.
Prod her further and the Thank You for Coming and Dream Girl 2 producer tells us, “I would definitely want to do something global with Guneet but for now we are doing a very interesting very smart film that we are pretty tight-lipped about. I love collaborating with her. Her stories are probably the most slice-of-life ones I’ve made and have an inherent sweetness to them.”
Kapoor also takes the opportunity to hail her female contemporaries for redefining Indian content and how they’ve changed the game with their acumen. “Various unspoken rules have been broken by female makers like Zoya Akhtar, Meghna Gulzar, and even like television makers like Gul Khan. OTT heads like Aparna (Purohit) and Monica (Shergill) are women who create new benchmarks on how to do things on a day-to-day basis.”
Hoping for this change to never stop, Kapoor continues, “A recent study carried out that actually brought about a very interesting fact – more women are taking on decision-making roles in content like films and television and more women HODs are being hired. It reflects that women have fought for [this change] themselves. Therefore, it’s important that we have more prolific makers, more prolific decision makers, and more interesting women at the top because it’s a champagne glass effect.”
