THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Two decades ago, during the shoot of Earth, casting director Uma da Cunha did something that was revolutionary. She set up a small classroom where the children of the crew, including director Deepa Mehta’s daughter, were taught. “They caught up with their lessons on the set. Such things are therefore possible. It is just that there should be a change in mindset,” said Ms da Cunha, who is at the IFFK offering organisational help.
Ms da Cunha feels that it was high time cinema got attuned to the needs of women. “I think the role of women in cinema is increasing. The idea that filmmaking is a man’s preserve is gradually changing,” she said. “Issues regarding pregnancy were an obstacle for a woman filmmaker initially. We are trying to make it easier for women. The idea was to increase number of filmmakers and networking among women.”
It was Mira Nair who had first demanded that there should be a crèche at her shooting site. The children of any female crew member will be looked after at the crèche, and given lessons as shooting schedules could extend to months. It was Ms Nair’s brainwave that da Cunha implemented at the set of ‘earth’ in 1997.
She is irritated at the second-grade status that mainstream cinema had conferred on women. “I hate the idea that women are simply commodified in some films. They are there just for an item numbers,” da Cunha said. “But I think that too is changing. These days stories centred on women, too, are working wonders at the box office. Vidya Balan had done a very good job, and down south there is Parvathy who won the best actor award at the recent IFFI in Goa,” she said.
da Cunha said that there needs to be cultural shift. “I feel that men are conditioned. I do not blame males for that. They are brought up like that. So when men can’t stand women who get greater acceptance than them, it does not surprise me. Aparna Sen put it better when she said we should empower both our men and women,” she said.
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