Amazon Prime Video And MAMI Just Launched ‘Maitri: Female First Collective’, A Collaborative Space For Women In Entertainment. And We Love It!
Impactful change takes time, but even taking the smallest first step is impactful. Over the years, we’ve grown so much as a society, and the biggest change we see trickling down through years of effort is the representation of women in Indian entertainment, both on-screen and behind it. I couldn’t exactly pinpoint when this shift happened, but that’s the thing about change; it is a steady, silent stream and not a deafening roar. Although it wouldn’t be too wrong to say that it happened when the few women who were already in the industry decided to lend a hand to uplift fellow women who aspired to work there. And it also happened when the OTT market in India exploded, pulling off the pressure of Friday numbers at the Box Office, and really allowing women-centric content to take its spot in the limelight.
The result? Women actors filmmakers, writers, producers, editors, cinematographers and content creators were finally getting their dues.
In an ideal world, breaking that glass ceiling once would mean it remains broken and the sky is the limit for women who’ve finally found their open space to fly. But society keeps thrusting ceiling after ceiling upon us. So what do we do? Well, united we stand, and united we smash through, right?
That’s precisely the thought that has inspired Maitri, a female first collective for women in entertainment which is the result of a collaboration between Amazon Prime Video and the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI).
What’s Maitri about?
‘Maitri’ means friendship, and the collective is an endeavour to foster a friendship, a sense of community amongst women from the media and entertainment industries, so they can take down the hurdles and challenges that block their paths to creative success. And believe this, the challenges are many, the biggest being the limitations of their gender roles that they might not conform to but the society keeps reminding them nonetheless. “You’re a woman, what do you know about the business side of making a movie?” Or “You’re a mother, would you even have time to write a whole film or series?” Or perhaps, “A woman-led project won’t rake in the moolah!” Sigh. Well, Maitri seems to have its work laid out for it.
The first episode of Maitri is equal parts inspiring, thought-provoking and even hilarious in spurts
Maitri will convene on a quarterly basis and will see women from media and entertainment come together to discuss the hurdles they face, the success and shortcomings, and even brainstorm ideas that can help them overcome what holds them back.
In fact, talking about the abovementioned and many more challenges that even the most established women in the business face (despite proving themselves countless times), are 16 women participants. The first episode, curated and moderated by MAMI’s very own tour de force, Artistic Director Smriti Kiran, has women like Amrita Pandey, CEO, Junglee Pictures & Times Studios Originals, Ayesha DeVitre Dhillon, Screenwriter & Hairstylist, Bhavani Iyer, Screenwriter & Author, Gayathri, Filmmaker, Jeeva, Filmmaker, Juhi Chaturvedi, Screenwriter, Kunjila Mascillamani, Filmmaker, Mini Mathur, Actor & TV Host, Nupur Asthana, Filmmaker, Richa Chadha, Actor & Producer, Rintu Thomas, Filmmaker, Shweta Tripathi Sharma, Actor & Producer, Sumukhi Suresh, Comedian, Actor, Writer, Creator, Founder & CE-HOE, Motormouth, Tahira Kashyap Khurrana, Filmmaker & Author, Aparna Purohit, head of India Originals, Amazon Prime Video in a casual, fun chat that is full of hard-hitting truths about the industry, which is slowly changing, but needs a lot more work.
If you think Sumukhi Suresh is the only one on that panel with the funny bone, you’d be surprised!
These women have such interesting anecdotes to share about their journeys through a male-dominated world and the biases they faced and continue to face, that it makes for moments of humour the way only women can find funny. Why? Because at the centre of it all is the gender bias that’s been the villain in each of their stories. But these women are all heroines in their own right, and as a part of Maitri, keen on helping each other achieve their best.
You can watch the highlights here:
Speaking about this incredible initiative, Aparna Purohit, head of India Originals at Amazon Prime India said, “Maitri means friendship or kinship, and the idea behind this initiative was to create a space for women to get together as friends, contemporaries and colleagues to collaborate, communicate and pave the way for others to follow. I believe that making an impactful change takes time, and can only happen when we begin to have a conversation regularly and repeatedly. I am glad that we have taken this small, yet significant step with the help of MAMI. It was incredible to sit at the same table as other strong women from the industry. I am certain that each one of us will be able to identify the learnings we had from the session and translate them into more actionable initiatives that make the industry a better place for other women.”
On bringing together this first room together, Smriti Kiran, Creator and Curator, Maitri had to say, “This will be a 24/7 space that will keep growing and evolving. The work in front of us is enormous. Our effort is to start at the foundation, bring mindfulness of the very basics, address our own biases, and begin by making the industry a far more humane and equitable place to work. Very grateful to Aparna Purohit and Amazon Prime Video for seeing value in this vision and giving Maitri the support that it needs to soar.”
As someone who loves and writes about entertainment, and has been thrilled with the shift both behind and in front of the camera to a more inclusive space, Maitri is a promising endeavour I’ll be keeping an eye out for!
In collaboration with Amazon Prime Video.
