Women in Cinema Collective (abbreviated as WCC) is an organisation for women working in the

Malayalam cinema Malayalam cinema is an Indian film industry of Malayalam-language motion pictures. It is based in Kochi, Kerala, India. The films produced in Malayalam cinema are known for their cinematography and story-driven plots. In 1982, ''Elippathayam' ...

industry.

Formation

The organisation was formed following harassment of a Mollywood actress. The organisation aims at the welfare of women in Malayalam cinema. On November 1, 2017, Women in Cinema Collective was registered as a society in Kerala.

Activities

* ‘Punarvaayana’, a year-long series of events was intended to address and bring more awareness in the society on issues such as exclusionary workspaces, workplace exploitation and gender discrimination. This curtain-raiser brought together prominent and successful women from various fields — including mediapersons, lawyers, bureaucrats, politicians, social activists to discuss and contemplate on these matters. *WCC also intends to celebrate the role of women in cinema by holding exhibitions and announcing end-of-year awards for

Malayalam Cinema Malayalam cinema is an Indian film industry of Malayalam-language motion pictures. It is based in Kochi, Kerala, India. The films produced in Malayalam cinema are known for their cinematography and story-driven plots. In 1982, ''Elippathayam' ...

that pass the

Bechdel Test The Bechdel test ( ) is a measure of the representation of women in film (and, by extension, in fiction in general). The test asks whether a film features at least two women talking to each other about something other than a man. The measure som ...

. *On May 18, 2017, WCC submitted a petition to the

Chief Minister of Kerala The chief minister of Kerala is the chief executive of the Indian state of Kerala. In accordance with the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with the chief minister. Fol ...

, requesting an inquiry and prompt action on the sexual assault case involving a prominent film actress in the

. Later WCC also publicly condemned and revolted against the decision of

AMMA Amma or AMMA may refer to: Acronym * American Medical Marijuana Association * Amhara Mass Media Agency (created in 1993), a media organisation in Amhara Region in Ethiopia * Association of Malayalam Movie Artists * Assistant Masters' and Mist ...

to reinstate actor

Dileep Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan Pillai, better known by his stage name Dileep, is an Indian actor, producer, and businessman who predominantly works in the Malayalam film industry. He has acted in more than 150 films and has won several awards, inc ...

, when the matter was only ''

sub judice In law, ''sub judice'', Latin for "under a judge", means that a particular case or matter is under trial or being considered by a judge or court. The term may be used synonymously with "the present case" or "the case at bar" by some lawyers. I ...

''. * WCC members has requested the intervention of the government to formalise wage structure and welfare schemes for women working in the film industry such as maternity pay and tax subsidies for production crews that have at least 30% women representation, among many others. * WCC requested the Kerala government to start more movie production related technical courses that provides direct employment opportunities for more women and provide for more women's reservations in government-owned studios.

Controversies

Actor Parvathy, a member of AMMA and WCC, was one of the first to openly state that films with

misogynist Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced fo ...

dialogues should not be encouraged. She named the veteran actor

Mammootty Muhammad Kutty Panaparambil Ismail (; born 7 September 1951), known mononymously by the hypocorism Mammootty (), is an Indian actor and film producer who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam films. He has also appeared in Tamil l ...

’s film

Kasaba (2016 film) ''Kasaba'' is a 2016 Indian Malayalam-language action thriller film written and directed by Nithin Renji Panicker, starring Mammootty, along with Neha Saxena as his pair, while Varalaxmi, Sampath Raj, and Jagadish played the important supp ...

as one such movie. She requested that senior actors like

who is much respected and has a wide fan following should henceforth refrain from acting in movies that has such misogynistic scripts for the betterment of the society at large. Parvathy's viewpoint received mostly criticism but also some support from the film fraternity and she became the victim of cyber-bullying. She was viciously trolled and abused by fans of

and two of them were arrested by the Kerala police following a complaint from Parvathy

Similar initiatives

Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA) rolls out its own women's wing.

Bhagyalakshmi Bhagyalakshmi (born 1 November 1962) is an Indian dubbing artist, actress and activist. She works primarily in Malayalam Film Industry and has dubbed for more than 4000 films in Malayalam cinema, most notably for actresses Shobana and Urvashi. ...

, the chairperson of the newly created women's wing, criticised WCC in being selective in its approach. The new women's wing which in many ways is looked upon as a parallel association to WCC, is claimed to be a platform where concerns of women technicians can be voiced out and they would act as arbitrators with the concerned producers to sort them out.

References

External links

* {{facebook, WomeninCinemaCollectiveOfficial
Women in Cinema Collective
Official Website Women's organisations based in India Film organisations in India Organizations established in 2017