Meghana Raj: ‘It is amazing to see women flourish in so many aspects of filmmaking’

Meghana Raj: ‘It is amazing to see women flourish in so many aspects of filmmaking’

The Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF), India’s only Oscar Accredited film festival, commenced on August 3 and will go on till August 13.

The brain child of Anand Varadarajan, BISFF was founded to create a platform for young and amateur filmmakers, to screen their short films for constructive critical feedback.

This year, the festival features seminars on VFX, Animation in the new AI World (a discussion with experts Jasbinder Singh, Prajwal Vas and Vinod) and Script, Screenplay and Beyond with people including Chaitanya Hegde, Abhishek Iyengar, Pooja Sudhir on the panel, moderated by Prakash Belawadi. The Future is Female featuring Meghana Raj, Geetha Gurappa, Sumana Kittur and Champa Shetty is moderated by Vasanti Hariprakash. Rajendra Singh Babu (film director and producer), actors Shruti Hariharan and Mandya Ramesh are some of the jury members for the Indian and Karnataka competition sections, while Sumana is on the jury for the International competition segment.

Meghana Raj, a commercially successful actor and who comes from a theatre background, talks of her role in BISFF and the space of women in the world of cinema.

Meghana is thrilled to be a part of the festival and says “Women in cinema have been celebrated to a certain extent. We are celebrated more in front of the camera. If you are a woman and are in cinema it is an unsaid understanding that you will be before the camera. It can be a lead or a supporting role, but acting is what has been dominant for years. It is not so anymore. Women, off late have started exploring the varied technical fields of cinema. I saw this change gradually since 2000. We have had women film makers including Roopa Iyer, Sumana Kittur. I am focussing just on the Kannada film industry.”

The actor made her acting debut in the 2009 with the Telugu film Bendu Apparao R.M.P.  “It was after the 2000s, that women flourished in various aspects of filmmaking, besides direction and acting. We saw women foraying into the field of makeup, music direction, sound design, cinematography, animation and so on. I have always had a male make up artistes and hairstylists. Today, when I get on to a set, I see women assistant directors, costume designers and more. It is amazing to see women flourish in so many aspects of filmmaking.”

This is what Meghana will speak about in the seminar at the festival, she says. “I want to celebrate women in cinema and give a loud cheer to the women who have made a successful foray in their respective fields.”