Women are fading out from Bollywood music

One in every two Bollywood songs are just sung by men

www.hindustantimes.com

Though many activities in Indian public life have been dominated by men, there is one where women have led the way – playback singing in Bollywood music. Yet in recent years, even that has changed: the melodious voices you hear in the top movies have become increasingly male.

By Gurman Bhatia (March 2018)

-- "An Interview with Ashim Ahluwalia" in BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies vol 7, no. 2 (2016).

"Being a woman is a terrible disadvantage in the film business. If you talk to people about work, they think it absurd that you should want to direct films."

This is the considered opinion of Shama Zaidi, one of the few women who has, in fact, been involved in film-making for the past seven years. "The problem," she continues, "is mainly prejudice - a prejudice above which even women find it difficult to rise. When my husband, M.S. Sathyu, made Garam Hawa, for instance, I was involved in every area of the film. Officially, of course, I only wrote the story (together with Kaifi Azmi and Ismat Chugtai), the screenplay (with Kaifi Sahib), the script (on my own) and designed the costumes. But, in fact, I worked on every aspect of the film, including direction. Now, if I'd been a man, I would have made the film on my own instead of working with and through Sathyu. It didn't occur to me at the time to do anything else-I just considered myself as a part of him."

But when she began thinking of herself as a separate person, at least professionally, the prejudice continually stood in her way. People would say things like, "it's too difficult for you, why attempt it at all?"

"There is a practical problem too. If you are negotiating finances for a film you have to attend parties and meet all kinds of people at all kinds of hours. I wouldn't, for instance, be able to go and drink with a potential producer at midnight in the Sun 'n Sand bar without it being misunderstood. Yet, a man can do so without any aspersions being cast on him ..."

Every single country where feminist publishing began, began with the movement. It came out of the movement. It didn’t come out of the mainstream publishing environment at all. It came out of a political context--a political context in which the women’s movement was very significant. But each of those publishing houses had a very different genesis. It’s not as though every single publishing house was sui generis the way we were. That it was just two women who set up and had no backing and no fronting either. Two women--always two women. That’s another thing--almost always two women. It’s always been collaborative.