The hue and cry seemed to have delivered results when the nominations for the 2021 Oscars were announced. For the first time ever in the Academy’s history, two women – Chloe Zhao (Nomadland) and Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) – have been nominated in the Best Director category. Including them, 70 women have landed 76 nominations, which is a record of sorts for the awards. And having watched most of this content, not one of these is undeserved. It’s just that it took the outrage of one half of that industry to get people to even notice their work. As the country that churns out the highest number of films in the world, maybe it’s collective outrage that we need – on a level that’s never been seen before.
In 1913, when Dadasaheb Phalke introduced a female actor (Kamlabai Gokhale) in a leading role in his film Mohini Bhasmasur, he broke a ceiling. Till then, all female roles in theatre and films were played by men. This was a time when it was taboo for women to…