Amazon Prime Video and the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) have joined forces to launch Maitri: Female First Collective.
The initiative was created to foster meaningful conversations and collaborations among women in entertainment.
According to a press release, Maitri will serve as a safe space for women to share their aspirations, learn from each other’s experiences and work towards unblocking challenges within the industry. The collective aims to form a community for women from media and entertainment where “they can come together on a quarterly basis to discuss their experiences, challenges and successes, and offer their perspective and advice on how to bring about a positive shift”.
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The first episode, which includes 15 major figures from the industry, was curated by MAMI’s artistic director Smriti Kiran.
Filmmakers Gayathri, Rintu Thomas, Jeeva, Kunjila Mascillamani, Nupur Asthana and Tahira Kashyap Khurrana; producer Amrita Pandey; screenwriters Ayesha Devitre Dhillon, Bhavani Iyer and Juhi Chaturvedi; actresses Mini Mathur, Richa Chadha, Shweta Tripathi Sharma and Sumukhi Suresh; and Aparna Purohit, head of India Originals at Amazon Prime Video, were all part of the discussion.
The panel revealed that Chaturvedi will be making her directorial debut, while Tripathi was also turning producer.
Purohit stated, “At Amazon, we believe that diversity, equity and inclusion is not just needed, it is essential, and we are constantly trying to go beyond intention to institutionalize processes and mechanisms to create an ecosystem that mirrors true diversity.
“Maitri means friendship or kinship, and the idea behind this initiative was to create a space for women to get together as friends, contemporaries and colleagues to collaborate, communicate and pave the way for others to follow.
“I believe that making an impactful change takes time, and can only happen when we begin to have a conversation regularly and repeatedly. I am glad that we have taken this small, yet significant step with the help of MAMI. It was incredible to sit at the same table as other strong women from the industry. I am certain that each one of us will be able to identify the learnings we had from the session and translate them into more actionable initiatives that make the industry a better place for other women," she continued.
Smriti Kiran, Maitri’s creator and curator, said, “I have immense faith in collaboration, community building and shared experience. I have consistently built platforms that bring creators together, encourage a sense of community amongst diverse filmmaking cultures within India and also tap into global talent. It was invigorating to bring the first room for Maitri: Female First Collective together. The idea behind Maitri is togetherness. It stands for unity and strength by building bridges that connect, enable reaching out for help and empower all of us to take ownership of the ambit of power we have, however small or big, to bring about change. The conversation that will lead to sustained conversion will never stop at Maitri.”
“This will be a 24/7 space that will keep growing and evolving,” she added. “The work in front of us is enormous. Our effort is to start at the foundation, bring mindfulness of the very basics, address our own biases, and begin by making the industry a far more humane and equitable place to work. Very grateful to Aparna Purohit and Amazon Prime Video for seeing value in this vision and giving Maitri the support that it needs to soar.”