Women's Day: Thanks to OTT, roles are being written for women, says Divya Dutta

Artists and Authors came together to celebrate Women In Cinema and Literature ahead of Women's Day at the event 'My Story' organised by the Inorbit Culture Club in collaboration with The Sunflower Seeds.

The panel focused on Women in Cinema, the changing face of the protagonists and characters in cinematic narratives, and the shift in perspectives and portrayal with the coming of streaming platforms.

Divya Dutta stated about women's empowerment on and off the screen and the diversity of opportunities available to women today,

"Not so long ago, in Indian cinema, the relevance of a female character was defined vis a vis her relationship to the leading man. She could either be his mother, sister, or love interest. But now, thanks to OTT and more evolved storytellers, roles are being written for women. That's a great change."

Naomi Datta talked about her journey of taking the risk of writing something like The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives and how our audience has supported a different kind of female lead.

The panel also featured leading filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar who talked about how despite the evolution of storytelling, the largely male-dominated commerce continues to dictate the scale of women oriented narratives in Hindi cinema. He said, 

"women's trained trick cinema, books, and how it is essential to encourage women's trained trick cinema in our society, in the public domain. And I really enjoyed the whole conversation. I had a prestige of making some of the remarkable films in Indian cinema, which are woman centric. And I think such conversation should take more place. So it definitely gives a great perspective to make more women centric cinema." 

 The festival will have a new set of speakers on Day 2, where the panel will focus on the literary scene and will have three leading authors from fiction and food talk about how literature helps women find and why conscious storytelling is important. Kiran Manral and Maria Goretti will be in conversation with journalist and author Richa Lakhera. The discussion will be followed by the unveiling of All Those Who Wander by Kiran Manral and To The Moon and Back: Life, Love and Everything in Between - Maria's to-be-released collection of poems.