Tahira Kashyap, Guneet Monga, Ekta Kapoor team up to found Indian Women Rising, a cinema collective 

Writer Tahira Kashyap and producers Ekta Kapoor and Guneet Monga have come together to found Indian Women Rising, a women's collective for Hindi cinema. The collective will seek to support and encourage female talent in the Hindi film industry. 

In a statement, Monga, the CEO of Sikhya Entertainment, said, "Less than 5% of the total directors in India are female. It’s time we change these stats and double down on each other. I strongly believe that India is a gold mine of talent and with this collective, we wish to shine the spotlight on many amazing women that can benefit from our humble support. The intent is to use our collective resources to amplify independent women creators.”

This, in many ways, reflects the work of the WCC (Women in Cinema Collective), which was established in the Malayalam film industry back in 2018. While the WCC came into being to allow women in Malayalam cinema to come together to speak against organised harassment, the Indian Women's Rising focusses on better female representation behind the camera. 

Kashyap said since there is limited representation when it comes to women and their stories, they get easily stereotyped. "Either we have revolutionaries on one end of the spectrum or tragedy-stricken damsels on the other extreme end. I mean we can be all of that but there is so much more to us. Our bandwidth is broader than the general assumption which perhaps will surface if we have more women working not just in front of the camera but behind as well. This collective intends to disrupt the boxed notions about women,” she said.

The collective aims at discovering Indian female talent in cinema and amplifying their work in the spheres of marketing, sales and distribution irrespective of geographical locations. Any filmmaker in or outside of India can apply for membership. In its first phase, the collective will actively seek finished shorts, documentaries or feature films.

Kapoor said it is always exciting to collaborate with like-minded individuals. "I have always believed that women create wonders when given the right opportunity and support. Through IWR, our vision is to do that and empower independent women filmmakers and creators and give them a platform to showcase their talent. We are hopeful that our collective will encourage more female directors to come forward with their work and lead the way in our industry,” she said.