Alia Bhatt Pledges to Support Diversity, Women's Representation in Bollywood

"I pledge to continue to promote diversity in my production projects," said Alia Bhatt.

The latest report by O Womaniya, researched and curated by media consulting firm Ormax Media, was released on 26 October. The study evaluated the statistical journey of women in various facets of India’s entertainment industry, such as production, marketing, and corporate leadership.

Several prominent personalities from the industry, including actor, producer, and entrepreneur Alia Bhatt, came forward and pledged to support diversity and women's representation in cinema.

Filmmakers such as Shakun Batra, Gayatri & Pushkar, Supriya Menon, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Sudha Kongara, Tahira Kashyap Khurrana, Nikkhil Advani, Vikramaditya Motwane, Hansal Mehta, and Alankrita Shrivastava, among others also voiced their support for diversity in the entertainment space.

Alia, who recently received the National Film Award for a female-led film, Gangubai Kathiawadi, said, "I pledge to continue to promote diversity in my production projects."

The report analysed 156 films and series, both streaming and theatrical, released in 2022 in 8 Indian languages (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Bengali, and Gujarati).

Here are the key findings of the report:

1. Creative Talent: Only 12 percent of the 780 HOD positions analysed across key departments of direction, cinematography, editing, writing, and production design were held by women.

2. Content: While in 2021, 55 percent of the properties analysed passed the Bechdel Test 1, the number has gone below the half-way mark to 47 percent now. Series and films like Guilty Minds, Four More Shots Please! Season 3, Delhi Crime Season 2, Maja Ma, and Gangubai Kathiawadi, among others, emerged as the properties with the most scenes to pass the Bechdel Test.

3. Marketing: Women still get only 27 percent talk time in trailers; the number is the highest for streaming films, with 33 percent talk time in trailers being allocated to women. Series and movies like Hush Hush, Gehraiyaan, The Fame Game, Ammu, A Thursday, and Sita Ramam, among others, performed the best, with at least 50 percent of talk time in trailers given to female leads.

4. Corporate Talent: Of the 135 director/CXO positions studied across 25 top M&E firms in India, only 13 percent were held by women.