Fair play

The director’s cap too is sitting prettily on the feminine head as women directors like Kiran Rao (Dhobi Ghat),Nupur Asthana (Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge) and Zoya Akhtar vied with their male counterparts in the Promising Newcomer and Best Director categories. There was appreciation for Reema Kagti’s and Zoya Akhtar’s crackling screenplay of ZNMD and Aarti Bajaj’s crisp editing of No One Killed Jessica. Not to mention the several female nominees like Niharika Khan and Anaita Shroff Adjania in the Best Costume category,who edged a stalwart Manish Malhotra out of the reckoning this year.

The high decibel item numbers like Munni badnaam hui and Sheila ki jawani have also contributed in their own way to the women’s cause. Munni landed Farah Khan the award for Best Choreography,beating former winners Bosco-Caesar in that year. Earlier it was Vaibhavi Merchant for the foot-tapping Kajraa re in Bunty Aur Babli. Over the years,Farah has won four Screen trophies for her choreography in films.

In fact,2011 could easily record the highest number of female nominations outside of acting –15 across technical categories suggesting that woman power is gradually making its presence felt in Bollywood.

If this year the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Memorial Award went to Prakash Jha for the issue-based Aarakshan,it would be worth a mention that for 2009 was the feisty actor-turned-director Nandita Das who was bestowed with this honour for Firaaq,an emotional journey of ordinary people caught in a communal crossfire. She also walked away with the award for the best Debutant Director.

Looking back,the numbers have added up over the years. Among the early ground-breaking technicians was the late Renu Saluja who was the recipient of the Best Editing award in 1996 for her taut editing of Sudhir Mishra’s racy thriller Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin. The same year saw Rani Malik walk away with the Best Lyricist award for the very romantic Dhadakta pehla dil mera from Raj Kunwar’s family drama,Kartavya. Though the gap was long,there was a feeling of deja vu when 12 years later the trophy for Best Lyrics landed in Anvita Dutt Guptan’s kitty for Khuda jaane for Bachna Ae Haseeno.

Interestingly,script-screenplay writing,an area once dominated by stalwarts like Salim-Javed,is now populated with women. Seemingly they give more defined contours to scripts,screenplays and dialogues like the 2001 winner of the best screenplay writer,Honey Irani,who together with her co-writer Ravi Kapoor churned out one of the highest grossers of Bollywood,Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai. A year later,Meghna Gulzar took away the Best Story award for Filhaal,an extremely sensitive story on surrogacy motherhood,and the following year it was novelist Amrita Pritam who earned this award for Pinjar,a compelling story on the sorry state of women in the Partition era.

Editing is another department where women are gaining ground. After Renu Saluja,it was Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s sister Bela Segal who won the trophy for Best Editing for Devdas and followed the win with Black,three years later. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s wife P. S. Bharathi,who was nominated for Best Editing for Aks,returned for a clear win with Rang De Basanti.

Aarti Bajaj,Deepa Bhatia and Namrata Rao are other editors who have shown their skill for their craft. While Bajaj has been nominated for Black Friday,Aamir and now No One Killed Jessica,Bhatia and Rao got their trophies for Rock On!! And Band Baaja Baaraat respectively.

2010 also saw more women stepping into the male-dominated domain of art direction and production design. Earlier it was Sharmishta Roy who won the trophy for Best Art Direction for Dil To Pagal Hai and Mujhse Shaadi Karogi,and this time a petite Helen Jones was handed the trophy for Best Art Direction with partner Sukanta Panigrahy for Dev.D’s eclectic backdrop. The other strong contenders in this category were Sabu Cyril and Samir Chanda.

The changes are being felt within the acting categories too what with actresses willing to experiment with their roles. Considering the varied characters essayed by leading ladies across films,the Best Actor in a Negative Role was split into a whole new separate category for women. It’s noteworthy that Priyanka Chopra,who grabbed the award this year for her sterling performance as a black widow in 7 Khoon Maaf,also won the Best Performance in a Negative role (Male and Female) seven years ago for Aitraaz where she played Akshay Kumar’s jealous and spiteful ex-lover. And she was pitted against equally competent actors like Ajay Devgn and Emraan Hashmi. And introducing a category Best Actor in a Comic Role (Female) which is presently clubbed under both male and female,does not look like a distant dream now.