How women directors are claiming their space in Kannada cinema, blending arthouse with mainstream

There are numerous women-centric International film festivals worldwide that celebrate and showcase films by female directors, writers and creators, focusing on women’s stories and promoting gender equality. Notable examples include the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival in South Korea, the Aichi International Women’s Film Festival in Japan, the Festival International de Films de Femmes in France and the Athena Film Festival in the US.

These festivals provide crucial platforms for diverse women’s voices, offering networking opportunities, education and recognition.

In India, too, the Mumbai Women’s International Film Festival (MWIFF) celebrates and showcases films by women directors and technicians, focusing on women’s voices and empowerment stories, with many events open for submission from global filmmakers to promote gender equality in cinema.

Now, the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes), in its 17th edition this year, has adopted 'Woman: Shared Sensibilities, A Collective Voice for Equality', as its tagline, inspired by the thought of the celebrated Kannada poem, 'Stree Yendare Ashte Saake', by Dr G. S. Shivarudrappa, which loosely translates to 'woman as she is'. Organised by the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy and the Department of Information and Public Relations, for the Government of Karnataka, the theme for this year’s festival, to be held between January 29 and February 6, is in keeping with the vision of the chief minister Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka, which has implemented several key-women-centric welfare programmes, primarily the flagship “five guarantees” which aim to provide financial independence and enhance women's participation in the workplace.

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​But is it truly enough to simply be a woman?

According to film scholars Dr N Manu Chakravarty and Maithili Rao, who edited Films Through Women’s Eyes, observe: “There is one incontrovertible truth about the film industry. It is the reality across all our cinemas, in all languages, mainstream, of the niche of what was once parallel and now the world of personal art house films. The film industry is an entrenched male-dominated bastion. It prefers to put women before the camera — for glamour, melodrama, softer emotional appeal — but hardly ever gives a chance for women to go behind the cameras and call the shots, literally and metaphorically. It is the sad reality of not only the many cinemas of India, but across the world. The few intrepid, persistent women who became successful directors call for celebration.”

Indeed, in recent years, a new generation of women filmmakers has begun to make its mark on Kannada cinema. The trend is part of a bigger rise of women filmmakers in Indian cinema; think Kiran Rao (Laapata Ladies), Alankrita Srivastava (Lipstick Under My Burqa) and others, in Bollywood.

It took a Vijaya Mehta, Sai Paranjape and in later years, women filmmakers like Aparna Sen, Sumithra Bhave, Deepa Mehta, Kalpana Lajmi, Mira Nair, Aruna Raje, Bijaya Jena, Revathi, Zoya Akhtar, Nandita Das and Sudha Kongara to carve out a place for women in Indian filmmaking and to prove that their vision is often deeper and their sensibility more acutely aware of the nuances of human behaviour in the flux of changing social forces.

In Kannada cinema, MV Rajamma is considered to be the first woman film producer. Also an actress and singer, she produced films like Radha Ramana and Makkala Rajya in the 1940s and ‘60s. Later, in the 1970s and beyond, Parvathamma Rajkumar, wife of matinee idol Rajkumar, turned out to be a legendary producer and distributor. Often referred to as the first woman entrepreneur in Karnataka cinema, her contribution is crucial to the Rajkumar family’s success.

As one sifts through the sepia-tinted pages of Kannada cinema, one cannot fail to notice how women filmmakers from Prema Karanth to today’s Champa B Shetty, Suman Kittur, and Roopa Iyer, have all sidestepped the restrictions of the patriarchal film industry. The narratives they have brought, and are bringing, to the audiences each passing year speak for their understanding of cinema as a creative art and medium of expression.

“Kannada cinema is witnessing a slow, but unmistakable rise of women filmmakers, who are reshaping the industry through their creative grammar, often working outside the star-driven, formulaic mainstream and foregrounding intimate, political and socially attentive narratives,” agrees PB Murali, artistic director of the 17th edition of BIFFes. “Films by women often privilege lived experience over spectacle, silence over melodrama and ethical ambiguity over moral certitude.”

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Yet this growth remains fragile.

“Access to budgets, theatrical distribution and sustained careers continues to be limited, pushing many women filmmakers towards festivals, OTT platforms or intermittent filmmaking. Still, the growing visibility of women behind the camera marks a crucial cultural shift; Kannada cinema is no longer merely accommodating women's stories, it is increasingly being authored by women, with all the aesthetic and political and consequences that entails,” observes film historian and critic Chetan Nadiger.

According to Murali, as many as 40 of 200 total films being screened at the 17th edition of BIFFes would be women-centric films and many national and international women filmmakers would showcase their works at the festival, besides sharing the experience in making their films.

“If we look at the histories of our many filmmaking cultures, women have emerged from the obscurity of benign neglect, if not active hostility, to the very idea of women helming a film. Pioneers paved the uncertain way and encouraged women who have stories to tell, spurred them to breach barriers and nurture the incipient creative idea to fruition. The determination to battle prejudice, to be taken seriously as creative forces and face the challenge of funding is ingrained in the success. Many women filmmakers are professionals who can project male protagonists without feminist blinkers,” says D. Suman Kittur, journalist-turned-filmmaker, who has helmed films like Slum Bala (2008), Kallara Sante (2009), Edegarike (2012) and Kiragoorina Gayyaligalu (2016).

Kittur, however, regrets that the 17th edition of BIFFes didn’t consider senior women filmmakers as jurors and restricted them to the selection panel. “How long will you treat us as kids studying in LKG [lower kindergarten], while we have completed our graduation?” she asks.

Credit for breaking the glass ceiling in Kannada cinema and bringing to the screen subjects like caste prejudices and the exploitation of women must go to Prema Karanth. Her 1983 film, Phaniyamma, based on writer M K Indira’s novel, created history. A very similar exercise by Champa B Shetty in 2018 with her Ammachi Emba Nenapu, based on the work of another equally renowned writer, Vaidehi, also turned the spotlight on societal violence against women and their continued struggle.

These films speak volumes about these women directors, who are inspiring others as well to step out of their comfort zones and stoic acceptance and shoulder on in the male dominated industry.

Films of Champa Shetty, J Chandrakala, Priya Belliyappa, or, for that matter, Priya Hassan, may not have the finesse of Phaniyamma, but these newbies, along with Kavitha Lankesh, Suman Kittur, Vijayalakshmi Singh and Sindhu Srinivasamurthy, could be considered flag bearers of Karanth’s legacy.

None of these women filmmakers is ignorant of the great challenges that they work with.

Despite Kavitha’s box office hits, “I am being considered an arthouse filmmaker who can [only] bring national or state awards. The male-dominated cinema industry still hesitates to accept me. Seeking gender equality is a distant dream for women filmmakers in the film industry in this country,” says the director.

Interestingly, Kavitha’s documentary on Gauri Lankesh, titled Gauri, which secured Best Film Award at the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal and Best Human Rights Film at Toronto’s women's festival, failed to get a chance to be screened in BIFFes last year. This year, too, it remains excluded from the list of films being shown, despite the festival’s women-centric theme.

Following in the footsteps of her illustrious father, Girish Kasaravalli, Ananya Kasaravalli made a name for herself as a sensitive actor, with films like Kaada Beladingalu, before turning to direction with Harikatha Prasanga in 2016, based on the work of writer Gopalakrishna Pai. The film received appreciation from critics when screened in various International Film Festivals.

“I feel the biggest challenge women filmmakers face is with voice, the constant, haunting question of whether what they are saying is relevant enough. In the Indian context, this doubt is deeply conditioned by culture, where women are taught to adjust rather than assert, and by an industry that still treats women’s stories as marginal or niche. The lack of visible role models only reinforces this uncertainty, making many women internalise external scepticism and begin to self-edit their ideas, emotions, and ambitions,” says Ananya.

Agrees Roopa Rao, who wrote and directed the 2016 same sex love story web series, The Other Love Story. “Challenges as an independent filmmaker are more than being a woman filmmaker, at least for me. The challenges increase when the narrative is women-centric and the genre is drama. When the stories are a bit centred around characters (a girl in the centre) it’s hard for a producer to see commercial merit in it.

From production to distribution, women directors have to find a way to work around male prejudice at every step.

“I have had distribution meetings where men don’t even ask me to sit or make eye contact,” says Rao.

And so, women in films, as in other industries, feel they need to push themselves twice as hard as their male counterparts because they fear they may never get a second chance if they fail.

“Pressure on women filmmakers will be higher because expectations are high and growing biases in the film industry,” agrees Sindhu Srinivasa Murthy, who made a name for herself with the critically acclaimed period film Aachar & Co in 2023.

She adds: “Women filmmakers face problems just because of the inadequacy of knowledge about the technical streams that filmmaking has. It is an intimidating situation for women filmmakers, especially beginners, because they don’t know whether they will get a second chance if they fail in their debut attempt.”

The director is now preparing for her next venture with actor Kishor, which is expected to begin filming in May. Confirming his collaboration with Sindhu Srinivasa Murthy, Kishor told The Federal, “Sindhu has come up with a thought-provoking and sensitive concept. The story unfolds over 13 days, exploring themes of death, last rites and the rituals that follow.” According to Kishor, it is a unique narrative and he felt compelled to be part of the production.

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The women directors of Kannada cinema have been serving various subjects on screen in the past decade. From Priya Belliyappa’s 2015 crime drama, Ring Road, to Vijayalakshmi Singh’s, Yaana an underworld film featuring her three daughters Vaibhavi, Vainidhi and Vaisiri and Rishika Sharma’s (granddaughter of filmmaker GV Iyer), 2018 neo-noir horror flick Trunk, these directors have moved beyond gender and relationships, subjects often associated with women filmmakers, to tackle a variety of themes.

Certainly, options are opening up.

“Still, it is far behind compared to other film industries in the country and abroad. Unless the industry’s patriarchal mindset changes, taglines like ‘Stree Andare Ashte’ will only remain mere slogans,” says director Champa Shetty.