I Will Not Shut up, Says ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ Director

The popular Indian cinema narrative is dominated by the male gaze, says Alankrita Shrivastava.

Alankrita Shrivastava, the young director of the controversy-ridden Lipstick Under My Burkha, has lashed out against CBFC’s stand on not allowing the film to release. She has penned a strong piece for The Guardian, in which she talks about Indian cinema’s problem with portraying real woman on screen.

The popular Indian cinema narrative is dominated by the male gaze. Women are objectified, there to fulfil the desires of men, or they play simply peripheral, subservient parts. Women are either heroic and pure – like goddesses – or they are vamps, to be shamed and discarded. There is very little space for realistic portrayals of ordinary women who laugh and cry, who are flawed and funny, who have desires and dreams of their own. Women who are struggling to gain agency over their own lives and bodies. In short, real women.  

Alankrita Shrivastava, Director, Lipstick Under My Burkha

She expresses her disappointment in CBFC and it’s allegation of the film being ‘lady-oriented’.

India is a difficult country for women. Violence, gender discrimination, glass ceilings in the work place, sexual harassment on the streets, dowry, forced marriages and female foeticide … the list goes on. In a country like this, shouldn’t the voices of women be encouraged and given more space? Instead we have a situation where a small film that dares to tell a story from a female point of view is being silenced. We are being told that our voices do not matter. We are being told it is better to shut up and comply.

And Alankrita promises, she won’t shut up.

As a woman, and as a filmmaker, I have decided that I will not shut up. I refuse to be silenced. I will not be discouraged. I will fight to ensure that Lipstick Under My Burkha is released in cinemas in India. And I will continue to make “lady-oriented” films as long as I can.  

You go, girl!

(Source: The Guardian)