Vaishna Roy, whose article is entitled “The Hema Committee Report shows there is hope that the omertà enforced by powerful men in the film industry will be broken,” .… and has been placed in an Indian site with this Editor’s Note: “A powerful, defining moment” … with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
Writing in this issue of Frontline, the feminist scholar J. Devika says: “Malayalam cinema has been historically structured by feudal funding and practices, and women artistes were inevitably taken to be sexually available to the big male names.” This is true not just of Malayalam cinema, but of every film industry across the country, where the prevalent patriarchal belief is that simply by entering the world of cinema, whether to pursue a career in acting, cinematography, or make-up, the woman ineludibly signs her body away. After any complaint, a set of tabloids and television channels inevitably pipes up with the claim that “adjustment” is a part of cinema after all.
