New Delhi: Women in the Hindi film industry, both in front of and behind the camera, have broken the ‘glass ceiling’ and have entered every male bastion, Raveena Tandon said during a panel of the ‘National Conclave on Mann Ki Baat @100’.
Tandon, the star of the 1990 and early 2000s Hindi cinema, said the film industry should learn from sister mediums TV and OTT (over-the-top) platforms, which are the leaders in paying women better and producing shows with female protagonists, respectively, she said.
“We also talk about pay disparity in the TV industry today. Women are paid much higher than their male counterparts, which is a great thing because of the kind of work they do and I think in our TV industry, women rule. On OTT platforms too, the protagonists are mostly women and women’s issues are discussed. In the film industry, we are going there slowly but surely because it has been a male-dominated industry since the beginning, but there is definitely a change. Our women have broken the glass ceiling. We have entered every male bastion,” the 48-year-old actor said, addressing the ‘Nari Shakti’ session.
Tandon said issues such as representation and pay disparity still plague the industry, but with women in high places, change is on the way.
“In the world today, there is a change because all the top positions, be it director of photography, choreographers, directors, producers, platform heads and channel heads are women. So, the opportunities that we should be getting, we are getting that. A woman is at the helm of producing something and understands those issues and sensitivity. She has the sensibilities, so we get more opportunities,” the Padma Shri recipient said.
Tandon, known for films such as ‘Daman’, ‘Maatr’ and the web series ‘Aranyak’, said in the 1990s Hindi cinema actors would ‘struggle’ to break their perceived image.
“There is a lot of change in the film industry that was not there in the 1990s,” she said.