The formation of the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) in May 2017 was a pioneering move that challenges the patriarchal views dominant in the Malayalam film industry. The WCC aims to address gender issues like lack of representation of women, unequal pay, and an unsafe work environment. This collective was formed in response to an incident where a popular actress was harassed, which highlighted the influence of cliques and celebrity culture in the industry. The WCC brings attention to the need for reforming labor practices that have become discriminatory and arbitrary. It also gives female creative workers an alternative voice and pushes for their legitimate participation and self-actualization in the industry.

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Women in cinema collective and the Malayalam film industry
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2. COMMENTARY
DECEMBER 16, 2017 vol lIi no 50 EPW Economic & Political Weekly14
Women in Cinema Collective and
the Malayalam Film Industry
Tara S Nair
In May 2017, in a pioneering
move, a group of women creative
workers from the Malayalam
film industry formed the Women
in Cinema Collective to address
gender issues in the sector. The
formation of the collective not
only challenges the patriarchal
world view of Indian cinema, but
has dragged into the limelight the
ugly underbelly of commercial
film-making controlled by cliques,
cartels, and celebrity power. On
a more positive front, it prepares
the ground for women who are
joining the film industry in larger
numbers to lay claim to legitimate
spaces for self-actualisation and
creative satisfaction.
I
n May 2017, the Malayalam film
industry witnessed an unprecedented
development: a section of its women
creative workers joined together to form
the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC),
to address gender issues in the industry.
They have presented a set of demands to
the state administration, which include
the formation of anti-harassment cells
during film production, increased repre-
sentation of women on movie sets, equal
remuneration, and a safe working environ-
ment throughout the film-making process
for female artists and technicians. The
Government of Kerala has responded by
constituting a committee under K Hema,
a retired judge of the high court, to investi-
gate the working conditions of women
in the Malayalam film industry (Deccan
Chronicle 2017).
What circumstances led to the birth of
a collective exclusively for women in an
industry that prides itself on having
numerous associations and trade unions
that represent every activity within its
value chain? Why should this new
entrant—currently an informal group
of concerned women film workers—be
marked out as distinctive in the already
dense associational geography of the
mighty South Indian film business? To
answer these questions, one must delve
into the recent history of the Malayalam
cinema industry.
The WCC’s formation was prompted by
an unfortunate incident wherein a driver,
who has reportedly worked with actors
and film production companies for
several years, waylaid and harassed a
popular South Indian actress (Menon
2017). The brash and brutal nature of the
incident evoked public anxiety regarding
the increased prevalence and intensity
of violence against women. At the same
time, the arrest and detention of Dileep,
a popular actor deeply involved in a
range of activities in the movie value
chain like production, distribution, and
exhibition, for allegedly abetting the
crime to settle some personal scores,
added a new dimension to the incident.1
Moral panic aside, the incident gave rise
to disturbing questions about the conduct
of the largest creative industry in the state
and how cliques and cartels have come
to control its resources and markets. It
seems to mark the lowest point in the
Malayalam film industry’s tryst with
hyper commercialisation, hegemonic col-
lusion, and the cultification of super stars,
who have a certain discursive power and
a legitimate voice over the rest of the
population (Marshall 1997). The only
positive outcome is that the event and
what followed revealed the false and
fabricated nature of the commodity
called “celebrity.”
The Decade of Decay
It cannot be denied that the 2000s had a
stunting influence on Malayalam cinema,
which has otherwise been home to iconic
directors and superb performers and tech-
nicians since the mid-1960s. Formulaic
film-making, based solely on the assumed
prowess of superstars,2 aided amply by
screenplays manufactured to project the
ultra-masculine image of male protago-
nists, seriously impaired the aesthetic and
cultural value of cinema in Kerala during
this period. Devaluing women’s position
in society in general (by representing them
as sheer commodities and appendages to
macho male protagonists) and their con-
tribution to the aesthetics and commerce
of the film enterprise in specific (through
discriminatory wages), was very much
part of the construction of superstardom.
It may be argued that such marginalisa-
tion is not peculiar to Malayalam cinema
and, indeed, it is very much a defining
feature of mainstream Indian commer-
cial cinema. It is perhaps important to
report here the findings of a recent global
study that shows that movies in India—
along with movies produced through
United Kingdom/United States co-produc-
tions or collaborations—have the lowest
percentage of girls and women on screen,
at just 24.9% (Smith et al 2014). When it
comes to people working behind the
camera as directors, writers, and pro-
ducers, India has one of the most skewed
gender ratios, with 6.2 men to one woman
Tara S Nair (tara01@gmail.com) is with the
Gujarat Institute of Development Research,
Ahmedabad.

3. COMMENTARY
Economic & Political Weekly EPW DECEMBER 16, 2017 vol lIi no 50 15
(as against the overall average of 3.9 men
to one woman).3
There have been clear indications since
the mid-2000s that mainstream film-
making in Kerala has come to be regulated
by “sanctions,” overt and covert, issued
by associations and unions to punish
artists and technicians who “defy” their
diktats in speech or action. While the
overall financial performance of the in-
dustry suffered during this phase (Poduwal
2010; Nair 2009), leading actors, directors,
and producers too split into warring
camps to fight for control over the busi-
ness and, more critically, the creative
aspects of Malayalam cinema. Several
controversies rocked the sector; the
most prominent were the conflicts in the
views of producers and actors regarding
the actors’ contractual obligations and
the defection of a section of directors
from the Malayalam Cine Technicians
Association (MACTA), founded in 1993,
to form an alternative union called the
Film Employees Federation of Kerala
(FEFKA), with 17 constituent sub-unions,
which represented all types of workers
along the value chain.
There are allegations that FEFKA and
the Association of Malayalam Movie Art-
ists (AMMA), a collective forum estab-
lished to promote “the common good” of
cinema artistes, imposed bans against
senior actors like Thilakan. A veteran
actor and 11-time winner of state and
national awards, Thilakan virtually dis-
appeared from mainstream Malayalam
films (Nair 2010) after invoking the
wrath of the leadership of organisations
like FEFKA and AMMA for his outspoken
critique of the industry; he was perhaps
the first to speak about the “mafiaisation”
of Malayalam film-making. He spoke voci-
ferously on media platforms, exposing
unhealthy tendencies in the industry,
and lobbied for protecting the freedom
of artists who are workers in their
own right.
Competition Commission
In a curious turn of events, in 2014,
Vinayan, a film director who once led
the MACTA, but became the victim of the
informal sanctions levied against him by
the new power lobby of FEFKA and AMMA,
contested the anti-competitive practices
and abuse of power by associations and
their leaders by filing a case with the
Competition Commission of India (CCI)
(Kumar 2017). He alleged that on differ-
ent occasions, the associations and their
leaders tried to force actors, technicians,
producers, and financiers to withdraw
from his projects. Towards achieving
that end, they allegedly imposed a ban
on his co-workers by issuing circulars
and show cause notices. Vinayan also
argued that such bans were meant to
topple his efforts to streamline the work-
ing conditions of artists and launch the
“Cinema Forum,” an initiative that envisi-
oned collaborations between film-makers
and distributors to make low-budget
movies with new actors (K K Sharma
Law Offices 2017).
While disposing its order in the case,
the CCI (2016) observed:
This case brings into sharp focus the conduct
of these associations, who have used their
clout to disrupt competition and fair-play in
the market through their anti-competitive
diktats. It is evident that OP-1 [Association
of Malayalam Movie Artists or AMMA] and
OP-2 [Film Employees Federation of Kerala
or FEFKA] are mighty organisations in the
Malayalam film industry, having renowned
actors and other players as their members.
Further, OP-2 is a registered trade union and
a federation of 17 sub-unions of different
types of technicians/workers employed in
the Malayalam film industry …. It appears
that it is highly difficult, if not impossible,
for any director/actor/producer, etc, to oper-
ate and flourish in the Malayalam film indus-
try without their concurrence. Despite there
being no written declaration or agreement
or official circular bearing [the] signature of
the office bearers of any of the associations
… declaring that no one should cooperate
with the Informant, it is apparent that the
players operating in the industry knew that
they have to follow the ban imposed upon
the Informant. The fact that even renowned
actors … were also influenced or threat-
ened by these associations, and were bound
to abide by their anti-competitive diktats,
speaks volumes about the anti-competitive
effects which such associations are capable
of having on the market. (pp 71–72)
The CCI has found that AMMA, FEFKA,
and the Directors’ and Production Exec-
utives’ Unions affiliated to the federa-
tion have indulged in anti-competitive
conduct in violation of the provisions of
the Competition Act, 2002; as such, the
CCI has imposed penalties on these
organisations and their office-bearers to
deter them from engaging in such activi-
ties in the future.
Relevance of the WCC
How is the WCC’s entry into the picture
significant considering the current situa-
tion in Kerala? For one, the initiation of
this collective has extended the canvas
of the debate concerning the future of
Malayalam cinema. It tabled the issue of
film workers’ rights to equal opportunity
and equal pay as the most important. The
WCC puts forward, in whatever prelimi-
nary form, a collective alternative voice to
the patriarchal feudalism that rules the
industry’s conduct at all levels; it draws
attention to the labour and production
practices followed in cinema-making,
which have developed to be illiberal, anti-
women, and collusive. That labour prac-
tices in the film industry are guided by
highly informal, personalised, and arbi-
trary arrangements that are intricately
intertwined with dubious channels of
capital mobilisation and deployment, is
popular knowledge. This is despite the pre-
sence of a mighty organisation like AMMA
and a plethora of unions that represent
practically all actors and activities—
minor and major—in the film value chain,
again federated at the aggregate level as
FEFKA. The WCC stands to question the
efficacy of these organisations in ensuring
the safety and well-being of its own
members and could potentially claim
space in the film industry that genuinely
belongs to its female creative workers,
on terms that are acceptable to them.
A closer look at the limited communi-
cation that the WCC has issued in the
public domain reveals an urge on its part
to characterise cinema as a place of
work. However, this should be preceded
by two clarifications: a detailed and
transparent assessment of the movie value
and revenue chains and a clear definition
of who a film worker/employee is. The
first exercise is undoubtedly complex be-
cause there could be several variants of
the value–revenue chain, depending on
budget levels and financing structures.
However, this would bring about better
transparency in transactions and facili-
tate proactive policy intervention on the
part of the state. As for describing who a
film worker is, the constitution of Film

4. COMMENTARY
DECEMBER 16, 2017 vol lIi no 50 EPW Economic & Political Weekly16
Employees Federation of South India
(FEFSI) defines the term “film employee”
as encompassing anyone employed on
wage, salary, or contractual basis in any
work connected with the production,
distribution, and exhibition of films. Even
those who earn more than the minimum
wage or mutually arrived at tariffs “on a
contractual basis,” like the performing
artiste, would be covered under this def-
inition (Nair 2005). However, performing
artistes in India have always preferred
non-trade union formats to organise
themselves. According to Nair (2005),
this could be because of their assumed
“distinctiveness” as high value talent
with a far higher capacity to bargain for
their remuneration as compared to other
workers. They would, hence, prefer to be
outside the purview of collective bar-
gaining efforts for minimum wage/tariff
that is central to a trade union’s identity.
It is also beneficial for them to not be a
part of any system that may bind them
to specific projects or limit their ability
to renegotiate terms in case the project
runs into hold-up risk that could rear-
range the bargaining power enjoyed by
them and the producer–investor. Indeed,
this is the time to review the existing
labour systems in Malayalam cinema,
especially contracting instruments and
arrangements, in ways that benefit all
parties involved.
The local press and television media
have been feasting on reports around the
aforementioned attack on the actress to
the point of even eclipsing the films being
released for the time being, thanks to the
alleged involvement of a popular star in
the incident. However, there has been very
little effort to address the fundamental
question of how to streamline the struc-
ture and conduct of the Malayalam film
industry, which is highly commercialised,
yet virtually unregulated. This question
is seldom asked in sensational media
debates dominated by arguments on the
cosy nexus amongst cinema, business, and
politics. Also, there have been no serious
efforts to leverage these debates to rein-
vigorate the conversation on women’s
status in Kerala. A state known for its
dense cultural capital and superior human
development, Kerala presents some
serious contradictions when it comes to
the treatment of women. This is not to be-
little the salience of some isolated voices,
including from within the film industry,
that recognise how decadent patriarchal
beliefs and dominant gender codes are
reproduced in films to justify women’s
subordinated roles in family and society.
The formation of the WCC may go down
in Indian film history as a landmark event
for its pioneering role in posing an elo-
quent challenge to the status quo domi-
nated by a patriarchal world view, pro-
duced and reproduced through material
and ideological means. The collective also
represents, again in revolutionary ways,
the articulation of feminist consciousness
in the creative industry, “an awareness of
inequality of women and a determina-
tion to resist it” (Epstein 2002: 31). This
seems inevitable when more young, edu-
cated, talented, and articulate women join
various departments of film-making with
visions of pursuing professional creative
careers. The generational differences in
gender beliefs and work ethic are per-
haps important to consider in any indus-
try, and particularly in an industry that
deals with a product like cinema, which
is valued for its cultural meaning and
significance. Market researchers inform
us that despite the persistence of gender
disparity, young, “millennial” women’s
attitudes and beliefs have been evolving
with respect to gender roles and women’s
empowerment. There has been a definite
intergenerational shift in attitudes, as the
youth are “optimistic about their futures
and have greater expectations for their
careers, their finances and their personal
lives” (Nielsen 2017). Young women now
join the cinema industry to seek creative
satisfaction, glamour, and wealth; how-
ever, they also demand to be treated as
creative workers who are equal in status
and dignity to their male counterparts.
What one is witnessing now seems to be
the beginning of a difficult, but socially
and culturally desirable, phase of nego-
tiations between genders to lay claim to
legitimate spaces for self-actualisation
and creative satisfaction.
One hopes that the WCC does not lose
its steam while dealing with the ambiva-
lent structures of a fluid world that de-
fies all notions of “durability” (Lee 2005).
In order to survive this challenge, it
must strive to grow beyond a select set
of individuals and cultivate deeper soli-
darity with movements outside cinema
and groups within the industry. The
days ahead are critical for the WCC.
Notes
1 He was released on bail on 3 October 2017,
after spending 86 days in police custody.
2 It must be mentioned that the “star vehicle” has
historically been integral to film-making. The
star phenomenon typically results when mar-
ket rents are channelled disproportionately to-
wards the most highly valued performers to
ensure low costs and high quality productions,
or when consumers start identifying any spe-
cific performer or director as an imperfect indi-
cator of the quality of film; in turn, this drives
producers, distributors, and financiers to con-
sider the same as a proxy for film’s likely suc-
cess (Barnett 2012). From such transactions,
the ethereal “star power” is produced, which is
a peculiar form of public subjectivity that nego-
tiates the tension between a democratic cul-
ture of access and a consumer capitalist culture
of excess (Marshall 1997).
3 The gender ratios are far better in countries like
Brazil (1.7 to 1), Australia (2.5 to 1), the UK
(2.7 to 1), and China (3.1 to 1) (Smith et al 2014).
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