The 2023 edition of O Womaniya! brought Indian entertainment companies and creators together around a stark finding: women held only 12% of 780 reported department-head positions across selected productions, while women held 13% of 135 Director/CXO positions at India’s top 25 media and entertainment firms. The report examined 2022 releases; the industry response included pledges and a roundtable, but the available coverage does not establish whether those commitments later produced measurable change.
What was the O Womaniya! report?
O Womaniya! was a report on women’s representation in India’s media and entertainment sector. In its October 27, 2023 coverage, Scroll.in said the edition was led by Ormax Media and Film Companion and backed by Amazon Prime Video. It assessed 156 films and series released in 2022, spanning streaming and theatrical releases in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Bengali, and Gujarati. The report considered representation in content production, marketing, and corporate leadership, according to Scroll.in’s account.
What did it report about women’s representation?
Scroll.in summarized the report as finding that streaming films and series performed better than theatrical films across all parameters, while overall progress since the 2021 edition remained sluggish. The article does not provide the full report’s methodology or category-by-category results, so this comparison should be understood as the publication’s summary rather than as a detailed breakdown of the underlying data.
Department leadership in productions
Women held 12% of 780 Head of Department positions counted in the report, as reported by Scroll.in in 2023 for the study of 2022 releases. The departments named included direction, cinematography, editing, writing, and production design. The figure describes the positions counted; it is not a current estimate for the industry.
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Senior roles at media companies
Women held 13% of 135 Director/CXO positions at India’s top 25 media and entertainment firms, according to the same 2023 report coverage. This is a separate corporate-leadership measure from the production department-head count, with its own group of positions and organizations.
How did industry figures respond?
Scroll.in reported that industry leaders made personal and broader corporate-level pledges to improve female representation. The people named included Alia Bhatt, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Vikramaditya Motwane, Nikkhil Advani, Tahira Kashyap Khurrana, and Gayatri and Pushkar. The article does not specify each pledge’s target or deadline, nor does it document subsequent results.
A roundtable hosted by Anupama Chopra brought together Kriti Sanon, Zoya Akhtar, Vikramaditya Motwane, Alankrita Shrivastava, Hansal Mehta, Juhi Chaturvedi, Aparna Purohit, and other industry figures to discuss the findings and possible responses. Chopra, Film Companion’s Founder and Editor, said: “The steps taken to bring change may seem small but each step, each action matters, and with every edition of the O Womaniya! report, we believe we are moving a step closer to a more equitable ecosystem.”
Who supported the report?
Alongside Prime Video, the article listed Clean Slate Filmz, Emmay Entertainment, Excel Entertainment, Jio Studio, Producers Guild India, RSVP, SonyLIV, Tiger Baby, and ZEE5 as industry partners supporting the report. Aparna Purohit, Prime Video’s Head of Originals, India & Southeast Asia, described it as “a collective effort to unite the industry and collaborate on enhancing female representation.”
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Shailesh Kapoor, Ormax Media’s Founder and CEO, said: “Like the previous edition of the report, streaming continues to pave the way for female representation, however, the sub-par performance of theatrical films should serve as a wake-up call for the industry.”
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the 2023 response does—and does not—show
The report’s figures provide a snapshot of selected 2022 releases and senior positions at leading companies, as relayed in Scroll.in’s 2023 coverage. The article records public pledges and discussion, but it does not show whether those pledges were fulfilled or whether women’s representation improved afterward. The figures should therefore be read as evidence of the gaps identified at the time and of an industry response, not as proof of later outcomes.
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