Entertainment

Historically, Indian women on screen oscillated between the idealized goddess and the sacrificial homemaker. The Indian entertainment sector, however, has glimpsed a radical transformation with women transforming from being screen players to being forced to be reckoned with off-camera. From the iconic heroines of the 1940s to today's entrepreneurs who are rewriting content narratives, is a story of a broader societal shift towards gender equality and empowerment. 

Female headed films, empowered stories, and social advocacy mark progress.At the very same time as we observe this incredible growth in the creative industries, it is becoming more and more clear that there are significant disparities in the most critical creative positions. This fact can be explained by the persistent existence of gender differences and institutional prejudices that still exist in our society. Obviously, we still have a very long way to go. What is actually needed at this point is not only continuous and continuous campaigning but also the implementation of targeted programs explicitly aimed at leadership.

The specific challenges in the framework of the theater, campaign for equal remuneration for all, provide harassment-free working conditions, as well as strong support for women-led projects. By doing so, we will eventually ensure that we construct an industry that is actually representative of the rich diversity of society.

 The Golden Era:Trailblazing Women on Screen

The foundation of women's involvement in Indian cinema was laid by visionaries who dared to challenge societal norms:

• Fatma Begum: Recognized as India's first female director, she established Fatma Films in 1926 and directed Bulbul-e-Paristan, introducing early special effects to Indian cinema.
  
  
• Devika Rani: Dubbed the 'First Lady of Indian Cinema', she co-founded Bombay Talkies in 1934 and was instrumental in shaping early Hindi cinema.
  
  
• Dasari Kotiratnam: As the first female producer in Telugu cinema, she produced Sati Anasuya in 1935, marking a significant milestone in regional cinema.

Even though these actresses played powerful roles, their actual impact was limited to what happened in front of the camera. Regardless, their performances defied expectations and thus set the stage for those to come. 

• During the productive years of Indian cinema from 1940 to 1960, there were remarkable female stars such as Nargis, Meena kumari and Madhubala. They infuse vividness into the characters which otherwise would be restricted by mundane conventions. 
• Nargis: starred as the rural mother who wrestles with social injustice in Mother India (1957), a film that achieved international renown and was nominated for an Oscar. 
• Madhubala: Celebrated for her beauty and talent, she delivered iconic performances in films like Mughal-e-Azam (1960), leaving an indelible mark on Indian cinema.
• Meena Kumari: Known as the 'Tragedy Queen', her nuanced portrayals in films like Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) showcased the depth of female characters.
• Actively concentrating on patriarchy during the parallel cinema phase in the 70s and 80s broadened female roles with Shabana Azmi, Samita Patil, and Rekha embodying multifaceted social issues. 
• In the 1990s, national icons included Kajol , Madhuri Dixit , and Sridevi .

The New Millennium: Women as Storytellers

The 2000s marked a crucial turn in the narrative.The entertainment industry began to recognize the commercial and critical value of stories told by and about women . 

• Zoya Akhtar , one of the influential voices in contemporary cinema , directed ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ and ‘Gully Boy’, both box office hits .
• Gauri Shinde’s  ‘English Vinglish’ was a breakthrough , telling the story of a homemaker who discovers self worth through learning English.
• Meghna Gulzar gave audiences impactful films like ‘ Raazi’ and ‘ Chhapaak’, which addressed the patriotism and acid attack survivors . 

These women did not merely direct films- they produced, wrote and shaped narratives that resonated with both male and female audiences .

The Rise of Women Producers

Making films is not just about financing but also about selecting story telling, putting together creative teams and managing all aspects of implementation. 

• Ekta Kapoor: is TV royalty who indeed revolutionized the face of soap operas with her trend-setting shows like 'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi' and 'Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki'. Her creative imprint did not end there; it went a long, long way into the fields of films and web series also, thanks to her successful production house, Balaji Telefilms, and its web portal, ALT Balaji.
• Guneet Monga :Founder of Sikhya Entertainment, she has championed independent cinema with films like The Lunchbox, Masaan.An Oscar-winning producer for The Elephant Whisperers, she launched Women in Film India to champion gender equity in cinema. 
• Kiran Rao: Her directorial venture, Laapataa Ladies, received international acclaim, showcasing her prowess in storytelling.

In recent times, actresses have transitioned into production roles, bringing fresh perspectives and championing diverse stories.

• Anushka Sharma:through her production house Clean Slate Filmz, has been at the forefront of the work of developing and supporting a slate of unconventional films, such as NH 10, Pari, and Bulbul. These particular projects have been ones that have been firmly focused on women's stories and tried to explore genre-bending stories, all in a bid to support and advance the world of varied storytelling within the space of film.
• Priyanka Chopra Jonas: Through Purple Pebble Pictures, she has produced regional films like Ventilator, which won multiple National Awards.
• Alia Bhatt: Established Eternal Sunshine Productions, producing Darlings, a dark comedy addressing domestic abuse.
• Kriti Sanon: Ventured into production with Blue Butterfly Films, with her debut project Do Patti co-starring Kajol.

The rise of OTT platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney +Hotstar has democratized content creation. Shows such as Delhi Crime (starring ,Shefali Shah) and Four More Shots Please!(written by Rangita Pritish Nandy) features urban, imperfect, strong women. Directors like Alankrita Srivastava (Lipstick under my Burkha) and Reema Kagti (Made in Heaven) are utilizing streaming platforms to drive narratives that mainstream film studios are afraid to attempt.

Regional Cinema :New Approach

While Bollywood often garners the spotlight , regional industries - Malayalam , Marathi ,Tamil & Bengali cinema have also nurtured remarkable female talent .Manju Warrier in Malayalam cinema and Sai Pallavi in Tamil - Telugu films have taken up strong , content - rich roles , moving away from traditional romantic leads. Directors like Sudha Kongara and Nandita Das have broken barriers both regionally and internationally. Moreover, regional industries tend to be more experimental, often allowing female directors and writers to tackle sensitive issues with nuance and realism.

The Future towards a comprehensive cinema

The future of Indian cinema seems to be more inclusive not just in terms of gender, but also caste and regional identity. Policies ensuring equal opportunities for women, along with thoughtful mentors, content policies, and equality measures provide hope for a balanced competitive environment. Numerous institutions as well as organized and unorganized film festivals are keenly trying to bring into the spotlight women filmmakers and technicians. 

Collectives in independent cinema and funding initiatives ensure that marginalized voices are given space and opportunity. The broad-based involvement of women at all levels of production is literally transforming the entertainment industry in India – culturally and structurally like never before. Their insights feminism has from time immemorial marked a great stride towards creation empowering content which shows deep inclusivity instead of imagination instead systematically chronicling societal narratives available in India.

 Indian Women Paved Their Way

From a periphery of pretty faces to the main players behind the scenes, women in Indian media have gone the distance. Though there is still a way to go, what we’ve seen is tremendous growth. As our society grows so does its entertainment which must include women in all parts as characters in the story as well as those telling the story. That shift from lead to behind the scenes is more than a mark in the movie history; it is a cultural shift in the making.

From initially being presented as mere decorative and ornamental characters on the screen to emerging as influential producers and excellent storytellers, women in the Indian entertainment sector have come a long way in an awe-inspiring journey. Although lots of challenges continue to be present and in effect, the progress that has been achieved is certainly significant and remarkable. No longer do women sit around waiting for opportunities or a place at the table—they are taking matters into their own hands and constructing their own tables, producing their own studios, and scripting their own stories in the industry.

All in all,with Indian society expanding and changing, it is incumbent upon the entertainment industry to do the same. The stories that engage and represent the aspirations and imaginations of a billion people must be inclusive in their scope, so that the voices and eyes of its women get heard. 

By Ananya Awasthi

School Education Department withdrew the order of Coimbatore Chief Educational Officer (CEO) for compulsory retirement of an art teacher in Government Higher Secondary School, Alandurai, on the outskirts of the city.

SA Rajkumar, the school art teacher who uncovered the sexual harassment of a female student at the same school, was suspended by CEO R Balamurali in 2023 on charges of neglect of duty. Subsequently, the CEO ordered his compulsory retirement in 2024.

On the appeal of Rajkumar of the CEO's compulsory retirement to the Joint Director (JD) Personnel of the School Education Department, the latter, in an order dated June 6, 2025, said the CEO, against whom charges had been made by the petitioner, had worked as the inquiry officer for Rajkumar.

The forced retirement of the art teacher issued by the CEO is deemed an inappropriate act on his basis of inquiry report. The forced retirement of the art teacher has been withdrawn, but his suspension will remain, the JD's letter mentioned.

The CEO has been instructed to appoint a new inquiry officer to probe the accusations against the art teacher. In 2023, sources say, a girl student from the school informed the art teacher that she was sexually harassed by a Physical Education (PE) teacher.

Even after the student had lodged a written complaint against the PE teacher to the headmistress, nothing was done. The headmistress and other teachers supposedly covered up the complaint in an attempt to defend the PE teacher. Upon revelation of this, the police arrested the PE teacher in December 2023. The art teacher was suspended later in the same month, citing that his actions were greatly affecting the integrity of the institution.

Additionally, the current CEO did nothing against the headmistress and teachers. Then, the art teacher complaintantly went to the district collector and Superintendent of Police (Rural) Coimbatore District office on many occasions, making demands for legal proceedings against them on the grounds of attempting to conceal the student's complaint. He booked the CEO on charges of not initiating departmental action against them.

At the same time, the police filed a Pocso case against six teachers, including headmistress, for concealing the complaint of the student last year. Subsequently, the headmistress was suspended, and five teachers were transferred to another school. In the meantime, on the basis of complaint, CEO awarded compulsory retirement to the art teacher on the charge of giving an interview to the media, and distributing petitions on grievances day by bunking classes, sources said.

As a personal decision, Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan has admitted his eight-year-old son, Mark Shankar Pawanovich, to the International School of Hyderabad (ISH), which is located within the ICRISAT campus at Patancheru. After a traumatic experience a few months ago when Mark developed burn injuries in a tragic fire accident while studying in Singapore, the choice has been made. In fear of his recuperation and well-being, Kalyan returned his son to India and opted to prioritize Mark's medical attention and emotional health by keeping him near his parents.

The politician-actor himself made a personal visit to the ICRISAT campus this Friday. On this visit, he conducted officialities pertaining to the admission of his son, toured the school infrastructure, and also stopped by for a while over at the research centre of the institute.

The news portal was informed by family sources that keeping Mark close to home was decided with the utmost care, especially given the child's recent ordeal. For Kalyan, who has political duties alongside domestic life, providing his son with a safe and healthy home was of the topmost priority. The International School of Hyderabad with its high standard of schooling and cosmopolitan background appeared just about ideal.

International School of Hyderabad is an established day school that provides English-medium education to children aged between 4 and 18 years. The school has a student roll of over 400 students from over 22 nations. The school prides itself on being an education melting pot. The school is primarily for international students but reserves some space for Indians as well. Interestingly, ISH has over one-third of its teaching staff comprised of instructors from beyond India and 12 nationalities—something that distinguishes it among Hyderabad international schools.

It was founded in 1981 under the patronage of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and is a not-for-profit body in the institutional form controlled by diplomatic missions. It is governed by the Head of ICRISAT and administered by a board working closely with the school Head of School to maintain effective management and academic success.

The school implemented the IGCSE Cambridge curriculum for the first time in 2003 and graduated its first International Baccalaureate (IB) diplomas in 2007. Notably, ISH is the first Indian school to have been internationally accredited by the Council of International Schools (CIS) and remains accredited by CIS and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). It was also the first institution to introduce the IB diploma in what is now Telangana.

With keen focus on scholarship intensity and readiness for university, ISH has the majority of its graduates positioned in top universities, with specific emphasis in North America.

But all of this education does not come cheap. On the school's website, although the registration fee is listed at Rs 83,000, the joining fee stands at a whopping Rs 8.3 lakh, and annual charges will range between Rs 8.7 lakh to Rs 13.6 lakh based on class level.

Both off and on screen, Pawan Kalyan is as busy as possible making films. He is engaged in two films at present—They Call Him OG, a hard-hitting gangster thriller, and Ustad Bhagat Singh, a feather in his cap  once again as a politician, actor, and doting father.

A green landscape, a peaceful sea, a paddy field stretching to the horizon - that is the canvas on which characters are painted in some of the finest recent regional cinema films. These places blend into the lives of the heroes, something few Indian films do now, replete with histrionic camera angles courtesy of 'action gurus' flown in from overseas, choreographed dance routines in some distant foreign locale and, honestly, inhabited largely by bogus characters.

Naturally, the big-budget ones have hundred crore business within a week of the release of the film. In fact, the people wolf it down too, as if they dream about such worlds where they would love to walk around them, or escape into for a while, which is also understandable because they need to tread the twisted alleys of everyday life.

And what about those villagers who work and earn their living, plough the soil, get stranded during monsoon rains, go through the struggles awakened by man and nature? Seeing a couple of films in regional languages made by such iconic directors is like a breath of fresh air, a smell of the earth itself.

Consider, for instance, Village Rockstars 2, the sequel directed by Assamese filmmaker Rima Das to her original film of the same name. Bedridden again by poverty, the teenage protagonist Dhunu still fantasizes about her dream of becoming a rock star as she strums a tune on her guitar in the very improbable setting of a poor village.

She and her friends even have a band that attempts to play at 'town functions' but get driven off routinely. Her father is deceased; her obstinate mother somehow manages to provide two meals. Dhunu assists her mother as much as possible; their relationship is a pleasure to watch. Her older brother gets entangled in bad companions, yet her mother persists in defying her son by refusing to sell her land to a developer. "This is all we have; I don't want to be uprooted," she says.

But life is also sweet for Dhunu, playing in fields among friends, picking at her guitar beneath a tree, fishing. There are the annual floods with the resulting temporary displacement. But then the waters come back and the fertile soil is green and later golden brown with paddy, in a continuous cycle of nature. Her mother dies away, but Dhunu picks up the threads from the low point of grief. Her brother returns to fold because he misses his mother. The twins become close, possibly to face the future side by side.

Will Dhunu turn rock star, then? Guessing is all one can do. Nature appears to become a part of the narrative in this charming tale. The green paddy fields, the distant hills, the beels where villagers go night fishing with fire on bamboo staves, children playing in the fields that have been harvested, provide a glimpse into a world seemingly remote from city lights.

The same countryside backdrop is audible in Sanjeev Sivan's Malayalam film Quiet Flows the Dead (Ozhuki Ozhuki Ozhuki). The film is set against the backwaters of Kerala and talks about Paakaran, a 12-year-old boy belonging to a single mother's family and working as errand boy of the village. He voluntarily waits on everyone and has no time to attend school. His mother is working at a prawn factory. Paakaran gets addicted to his father's vanishing during fishing trips.

When he finds a body floating on water when he goes out fishing, he silently brings it back home at night and cremates it in honor because he fears, as is suggested by the priest, that the agitated ghost of an unclaimed dead body might be wandering around. Maybe his father met the same fate. After all, as the tagline for the movie reminds us, 'Thousands of bodies of the unidentified dead flow in the world's waters, far from home, as their loved ones await their return or at least a chance at a final goodbye'.

But the act gets Paakaran into trouble with the police and even gets him arrested for murder, and only a compassionate cop can rescue him. He is going to bid farewell to his dearly beloved homestead and endearing community to a school in the town, courtesy the cop. Once again, Paakaran's tale is about as much about him as about the community built by Kerala's sparkling backwaters terrain.

Payal Kapadia's Cannes Grand Prix-winning All We Imagine in Lightbegins with strangulation shots, clogged-up Mumbai streets where two Kerala nurses-turned-friends meet in their shared flat; but only when they accompany their co-workers back to the state to escort an ill elderly woman, a nursing-home cook who is elderly, do they have the privilege of looking inward.

Having dinner at a 'restaurant', a casual word for a shanty on the coast, under the light of the moon on a night like this they reflect upon the weaknesses in relationships and concepts that got squashed while running after a livelihood in the city. Tamil movie Angammal by Vipin Radhakrishnan, based on a short film by Perumal Murugan, revolves around a hot-headed rural lady who does not want to wear a blouse and desire to flaunt the tattoos on her arms. Things go wrong when her city-educated doctor-son gets into wedlock with a city-bred girl.

When his in-laws are to come home for a 'discusión', he is embarrassed that his mother is not wearing a blouse and is afraid that he will lose face in front of his would-be-in-laws. This brings the family under stress, but Angammal holds firm. She has always been her own advisor – she rides a motorcycle to distribute milk and vegetables grown at home to other homes. What strikes the eye, apart from the superb performances, is the countryside background with a hillock, its reddish soil representing Angammal's stubbornness. Man and nature, hitherto so intimate with each other since centuries, are losing out in today's age of high-speed 'development'. The landscape spread out in these films once again showcases how human beings are shaped by the environment too, not just by genes.

Reality television star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian has officially become a law school graduate. That surgical precision of multitasking that she seems to have mastered, got her through six years of law school alongside filming, parenting, and her business empire. Inspired by the ocassion, Kim, ofcourse, did it the Kardashian way.  

Kim hosted a small get together to celebrate her graduation in style, with friends and family.  

Among the passed attendees was her sister Khloe, along with her three younger children (Saint, Chicago, and Psalm) and her friend from years, who advocates for legal reform, Van Jones.  

The guess from the do it yourself part were the study notes, which tailored the woman's legal grind for the party glam.  

The speech she posted bits of on her social media accounts had her stating, “This journey has been so personal.”  

“After a video that I spotted on Twitter and started talking with Van. Everything just took off from there,” is what she told her followers on social media, after explaining her self exploration in the American legal system.

In 2018, instead of enrolling in law school, Kim Kardashian began her legal journey through a rather unconventional path: a four-year apprenticeship with a law firm in San Francisco.

Suriya's magnum opus Retro performed wonderfully at the box office. The film minted Rs 235 crore. Now, the actor has contributed Rs 10 crore from the profit to an organization that promotes students' education. Read the deets inside:

Suriya thanks his fans after Retro's huge success

During the event, the Retro star uttered, "To make this number grow more, we have to raise our contribution towards Agaram. As a beginning in achieving that, I'm delighted to announce that from the affection and support you showered on our movie Retro, I'm donating Rs 10 crore to the Agaram Foundation during this academic year, 2025."

He went on to say, "There is no greater pleasure than sharing. It has always given me great satisfaction to share my success with all of you, who acknowledged my hard work and gave me a name as an actor."

Referring to the love that he got for Retro, Suriya has said, "The superlative support you've accorded the movie Retro has turned the movie into a heart-touching success. Whenever I encounter a difficult situation, it is your encouragement and love that stand by me and urge me to move forward."

Retro's production house, 2D Entertainment, shared the news of the film’s huge success on X and wrote, “Dear Audience and #AnbaanaFans, we’re humbled by your immense love and support for #TheOne. Grateful for the glory, it’s all because of you. #RETRO." Check out the post embedded below:

Discussing the movie, it was directed by Karthik Subbaraj and Pooja Hegde was the heroine. It was released on 1st May. It has an amazing star cast. Apart from Suriya and Pooja, the movie also featured Joju George, Jayaram, and Karunakaran. Santhosh Narayanan composed the music and the action choreography was taken care of by Kecha Khamphakdee.