Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal launch Undercurrent Lab

Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal, who ventured into film production with their banner Pushing Buttons Studios, on Monday launched the Undercurrent Lab, along with filmmaker Shuchi Talati.

Chadha and Talati have set up the incubation programme for women who hope to work as gaffers in the Hindi film industry. The one-of-a-kind lab is a joint partnership between Women in Film and Television Association - India (WIFT) and lighting and grip equipment providers Light N Light.

In its first year, the Undercurrent Lab will focus on training ten women, who will be selected after a rigorous interview process. It will start with a first-of-its-kind, hands-on workshop, where the trainees will learn the art from gaffers and cinematographers from the industry.

After the week-long crash course, the women will be sent out on the field, to work on film sets as trainees. Two of the ten will be placed on the nearly all-women crew on Pushing Buttons' maiden production Girls Will Be Girls, which goes on the floors in October this year.

Lab co-founder Chadha stated, “When we set out to have an all-women team, we found that there are virtually no women who work in the lighting departments in Hindi films,  So our associate, Tanya Negi came up with the idea for this workshop. We are starting this training programme for women which aims to increase the participation of women behind the camera. I hope that the initiative seeds a much larger change in the way things work in this industry.”
 
Talati added, “We applied for a grant at Berlinale Talent Footprints in February this year to set up this Lab, and won! The Undercurrent Lab will give the opportunity of making a solid career in the lighting department in the film industry, to our ten candidates who have been chosen after a careful series of interviews. We are thankful to folks at Arri, Berlinale, Light N Light and Gratitude House for coming on board to help us pro-bono.”

Sponsored by Light N Light and powered by Mastercard and Berlinale Talents, the Undercurrent Lab ends on 18 June.