Will Ring Road Shubha help break the glass ceiling for female technicians?

Actress-filmmaker Revathy’s ambitious 1993 project, Mitr: My Friend, had an almost all-women crew. Now, in 2014, a little over a decade after Revathy’s film, Priya Belliappa’s Ring Road Shubha has been completed with an all-women crew, with ladies spearheading all the 19 departments in filmmaking. Cool, isn’t it? But ask the team and they’ll tell you that making the film wasn’t that easy.
When the film was being conceived, the producer (Ranjini Ravindra Das) and director, Priya, wanted to make it with an all-women team and decided to search for technicians across the country. Little did they know that this would be an uphill task.
Their research showed that only around 7% of film technicians in India are female and certain departments, like makeup, for instance, are exclusive to men. In fact, a couple of years ago, actress Anushka Shetty’s personal makeup artist Charu was denied permission to work on a Tamil film. She had filed a case with the National Commission for Women then, claiming that her right to work was being denied.
The letter that was given by the union to Charu read, “Makeup artist cards are issued only to the male member… to ensure that they are not deprived of their earning(s) to support themselves and their families because nobody would be interested to engage the services of (a) male makeup artist if a female artist is available."
There has been only one exception to this case. Banu, who was employed as the makeup artist for Rajinikanth in Endhiran, and was given a card without any questions. Of course, insiders joke around that no one questions Rajinikanth and twisted it into another joke.
The team of Ring Road Shubha, therefore, too came across a few hurdles. “We tried approaching associations in Mumbai and Chennai to help us with (membership) cards for female makeup artists, but in vain. Later, we approached the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce. They gave us a special permission for this one film, by giving the technicians letters. We thought that this was at least something good enough for us to work towards our dream,” says Priya.
Will this first step by the team work towards breaking this glass ceiling for technicians in the Indian film industry? Let’s wait and watch.
Expert speak Jayamala, former president of the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce who holds the distinction of being the first woman to hold that post, says, “Today, women are there in every field. Earlier many women didn’t come as makeup artists and other technicians. Women need to have patience to follow the rules of the associations. Eventually, it is not about men or women, it all about who works correctly for the film. A suggestion would be to keep different waiting lists for men and women, thus helping them get prioritization.”