India Today Woman Summit 2018: Three boss women, three great stories
In the fifth session of India Today Woman Summit 2018, three boss women share their experiences of being their own boss and making a space for themselves in their respective industry.
Soumya Kant, founding member of Clovia the online lingerie store said that the biggest challenge she faced was that the lingerie industry was majorly owned my men. "The idea to set up Clovia came from a personal problem. We realised that most lingerie stores are owned by men, with no trial rooms. Women were also not aware of their sizes. We decided to deliver affordable lingerie to women across the country," she said.
Soumya also talked about how entering the male-driven industry was a challenge for her. "Men were surprised when I used to turn up for sales pitches. After the pitch, they would ask me - who is your boss?," says Soumya. "It was then I decided to give a pitch that would instantly tell them that I am the boss," she said.
When asked why today's female characters lack ambition, Kanika pointed out that ambition cannot alone define is a character is strong. "Why is ambition a prerequisite for a girl to make her own choices? I don't need to burden my character (like Rumi in Manmarziyan) just because I want her to be a rebel. Ambition alone cannot define a progressive female character," she said.
Sharing an anecdote, Kanika said that she had an argument with a director who said that the scene where Rumi sleeps with her ex-boyfriend immediately after getting married will make the audience uncomfortable and should be deleted. "When I wrote Manmarziyan, my then director and I fought because of this scene when Rumi sleeps with her ex-boyfriend. She's in an emotional state because she has had no closure and she's just started her arranged marriage. The director (a man) was like 'how can she sleep with this guy if she's married' to which I reasoned that 'she was in love with her ex!'. Then he said, ' I know it happens., but you can't show it on screen because it will make people uncomfortable'. This is a deep-rooted stereotype. There are rules on how a woman should be characterised," she said.
Manmarziyan writer Kanika Dhillon said that sexism and misogyny are a commonplace thing in the entertainment industry as well. When you look at female actors they don't have the same pay package, etc. It tarts from there and percolates down to less representation in terms of female directors and even writers.