JS Nandhini, Filmmaker & Comic Book Creator
Women in the film industry, particularly behind the camera, used to be a rarity back in the early 2000s. It was this idea, of a lack of representation of women in the industry, that largely inspired Nandhini to take up filmmaking. There was, however, a lot of convincing the parents involved. “I told my parents about this in 2000, when there were not many female filmmakers. Very few like Mira Nair who dabbled in the arts. So it was quite a challenge for me back then. I was told that it was very difficult for a woman to survive in this industry, but that actually challenged me. If I can succeed here, then it will become a big deal right?” she says.
Nandhini’s work includes the Tamil film Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru and currently has a Tamil web series titled Nila Nila Odi Vaa, a fun story with a female vampire in it! Comic books, too, have been a source of inspiration to her, with her even giving it a try few years ago.
“Just like cinema, I love comics too. I had never tried art before; just like a bathroom singer, I was an amateur artist. The film industry was in a crisis back in 2013, a lot of films that were produced were not being released. My second film was dropped due to lack of funds. I got frustrated and came out of the industry for a while. I still wanted to continue telling stories. So I took a story of mine which was written for a film and made into a graphic novel. And that’s how ‘Sivappu Kal Mookuthi’ came out. In India, especially in Tamil Nadu, people don’t buy or pay for comics that much. So I’ve put a pause button on that for now and I still wait for the day comic books will be made into films here.”
While Nandhini is open to taking up good projects now, it wasn’t so simple for her when she started out. “When I joined the industry, it was even difficult to get the position of an assistant director. I would go for interviews and they would say that it’s difficult to hire women because they would either get married or have kids. I expected questions such as ‘what’s your favourite film? Which filmmaker do you look up to?’ but I was mostly asked ‘Are you married?’, ‘Do you plan on having kids?’, ‘What if you get pregnant in the middle of shoot.’ I was treated differently. But now, women are hired a lot more and doing all sorts of technical work. It was very difficult to convince our families first, but now there’s a lot more work available out there and you need people to work. So plenty of opportunities for women now.”
Over the years, with a lot of trial and errors, Nandhini has learnt one thing that women ought to abide by – follow your passion, but be smart enough to make money out of it. “You have to work hard. Firstly you have to ask this – ‘Can you take care of yourself?’. I have a child, and sometimes I’m asked why I’m not doing just as well as others. All I can say is, a man can have a child and go for work tomorrow. Nobody asks him anything. But a woman can’t do that. We are completely held responsible for the child and family. We can’t run equally in that rat race, so you have to stop where you are and take your own time to catch up.”
Anuradha Krishnamoorthy & Namrata Sundaresan, Cheese makers and Entrepreneurs
For connoisseurs of all fine things, cheese is a favourite but you seldom find local flavours infused into organic cheese, let alone have a lot of options for artisanal cheeses around. Käse Cheese, run by Anuradha Krishnamoorthy and Namrata Sundaresan, offers cheese lovers milagai podi cheese, as well as their own version of matured blue cheese. Something for everyone, Anuradha and Namrata started Käse in 2016 when they realised that artisanal cheese was something they could bring to Chennai, a city that is increasingly becoming a gamut of the finer things in life. “Cheesemaking is something that I learnt on a holiday. Anuradha and I were talking one day and she said she wanted a group of girls to be trained on baking skills. That’s when I realised that baking wasn’t something new considering it has quite a market. Cheesemaking, however, especially artisanal cheese, is relatively new here,” says Namrata. Following clean eating, their cheese use A2 organic milk and are very serious when it comes to using locally sourced ingredients, bereft of anything processed. They started out by making 5 kgs a week and now make around 50-100 kgs. “It’s always been encouraging for us, right from our colleagues and family. Both of us are in our early 40s and we have been entrepreneurs for a while now. We are not really new to this, and we come from a very encouraging ecosystem. Especially since ours has a social angle to it, where we work with women disabilities and train them on so many skills.”
An advice they have for women who wish to put their entrepreneurship skills to use – Identify your space. “You need to ask yourself if you are looking into a scalable business or lifestyle business. Secondly, you need to understand your customers. Thirdly, you have to understand your competition. Don’t be scared of competition, but be open to enormous opportunities where you can collaborate with someone else, adding your strength and somebody else’s strength for something big.”
Sharada Vijay, Erotica Writer & Poet
Sex is still considered a taboo in India, with some scorning or even filing charges of obscenity if someone were to explore that topic further. Sharada Vijay, however, explores sex, body, mind, and much more through her writing, where nothing stops her. Not even society’s often dissuasion. “By nature, I’m a very sensuous woman. I understand my sensuality, my body, I understand what my body and my mind wants. A lot of people think that erotica is all about sex. But it actually has little to do with sex and more about the mind and how you frame the entire aspect of the physical nature in your mind,” she says. Writing to her flowed in naturally, albeit transitioning towards it after a rather tumultuous time. “My hobbies liberated into art. I had an abusive relationship and a bad failed marriage. I was pushed to a corner where there wasn’t much to look upon in life. That’s when writing came in the first place. Writing started, then blogs, then articles on free will and my opinions. Slowly I realised that poetry is a form of writing that came naturally to me,” she adds.
Her work, in a lot of ways, releases a sense of liberation. She says, “I read a lot of books on sensuality such as Kamala Das’, Rosalyn D’Mello’s etc. I write about masturbation or threesome or sex, it helps me liberate myself and my body and connects my mind and body.”
There have been times where her words have even helped couples to come closer, in mind, body and soul. And there have been times when people would forget that she’s a writer and not a sexologist. “ I have had men send images of their genitalia on my inbox. I’ve had men ask what position they should be in to have babies. I’ve told them that I’m not a sexologist!”
Her partner, her family and friends have been fairly supportive of this, wherein they even give suggestions on what she could write about next. “My husband asks me why I write about men and women, when I can write about a romantic story between two men. My family, too, are pretty open about my work that way,” she says.
She used to have a cushy job at big companies in the past, but writing was something she was meant to do. Right now, she manages to pursue her passion in some form of the other. By day, she’s a senior copywriter for an ad firm. She has another book coming out too, next year, and assures that she’ll be writing for a long time now.
A pointer she has for those women who would really like to explore a career that many don’t have the courage to – Always have a fallback option. “First thing, a lot of people say they want to quit their jobs and chase their passions. While the idea sounds lovely, you shouldn’t unless you have your finances in place. Passion is all good but you have bills to pay. There are a lot of young people who quit their jobs for their passion but it doesn’t feed them. And they are stranded there and slowly lose their passion midway. It becomes a hobby and subsequently die out. Passion can wait. I’m 36 and I started late. Life can wait, as long as you’ve sorted your things out.”
Asmita Madhu, VFX, animation, and gaming producer & writer
Starting her career at a very young age after her 10th grade, Asmita has been into freelance writing for long time. She was the editorial head for a Times of India supplement to various English magazines and newspapers, making her stint as Digital content head at Viacom 18 an interesting one.
She’s had experience with corporate communication and then as the associate editor for an online animation, vfx & gaming portal. Things took an interesting turn when she got an opportunity to join as a VFX Producer for an international studio and there was no looking back. She currently handles independent projects as freelancer and provides consultation to studios, slowly becoming the first and only independent VFX producer from India to be hired by a Hollywood film studio to head VFX scenes that were executed through various artists and studios in the country.
Some of her Indian and international projects include Vishwaroopam, Billa 2, Uttama Villain, Peruchazhi, and Unnaipol Oruvan. Sequences from The Host, Justin Timberlake’s ‘In Time’, Jack Black’s Gulliver’s Travels, Barrie Osborne’s The Warrior’s Way etc add to the list too.
With known projects to her credit, Asmita avers an observation. “There have been times that there were hardly very few female on set on a shoot day with hundreds of crew members. Like many professions, VFX too has had lesser women due to hectic timings. Hopefully this is changing.”
A piece of advice for women involves the adage – Just go for it. “There are so many vocations in today’s world, that the choice is unlimited. Just look at what you love doing, and find opportunities in the field. If you are good at it, girl or boy, success will follow, talent, hardwork and determination.”