A Regulation Act, or a statute for the film industry that addresses all the legal gaps is the first of the foundational solutions that the Women in Cinema Collective has proposed to the government of Kerala, for creating a film policy. The statute should be followed up with a statutory commission headed and led by people in the film industry, along with representatives of government departments. As a third step, there should be a tribunal working as a redressal forum, as proposed by the Hema Committee, which was constituted to study the problems of Malayalam cinema.
Members of the WCC met the film policy committee, formed by the government of Kerala in the aftermath of the Hema Committee report. The Hema Committee was formed in 2017, on the request of the WCC. The report, which was submitted to the government in 2019 after detailed interviews with members of the film industry, was published in August this year.
Pointing out that such reports have come up in other countries where solutions were found, Anjali Menon, filmmaker and founding member of the WCC, said it was important that the regulatory body (statutory commission) should be led by people in the industry. Statutory bodies are established by acts of Parliament or state legislatures, deriving their power and authority from these laws. The government of Kerala had proposed a Regulatory Authority Bill in 2017, based on the recommendations of the Adoor Gopalakrishnan Committee, but this was not accepted by everyone in the industry.
“There is a peculiar situation in the Malayalam film industry where industry members stringently follow organisational guidelines but are ignorant about the law of the land. Evidently there is a “lack of legal awareness” and such an imbalance needs to be corrected. Film industry bodies are intended to service the welfare of their members and ensure the protection of their rights. This would require the bodies to first make their own membership aware of their workplace rights as per law,” states the document that the WCC presented before the film policy committee.
In the meeting, there were also members of another collective of women called Creative Women Collective, formed by writers, journalists and others. “We were also amazed by the commitment with which they presented the issues, and they are not in the film industry. They studied the issues in the Hema Committee report and made a pressing presentation,” said Anjali.
One of the key recommendations the WCC makes, Anjali said, is the zero tolerance policy, that should be co-signed by all the stakeholders and adopted to the bye-laws. The policy says “No sexual harassment, as defined by POSH Act, no gender discrimination, bias, abuse or harassment, no discrimination based on class, caste, religion, ethnicity or sexual harassment, no working under the influence of intoxicants, no illegal commission and no intimidation.”
The WCC also proposes an immediate adoption of a Cinema Code of Conduct, which will serve as a commitment to create progressive work culture, provide workplace rights for all employees, ensure women’s safety and implement the zero tolerance policy.
Registered IDs (identity cards), contracts for all, film insurance, pay parity, and equal opportunity taskforce are among the other recommendations.
The film policy committee, headed by filmmaker Shaji N Karun, has been meeting members of the different film organisations in the past few days, to listen to their suggestions in formulating a film policy. Kerala Chalachitra Academy chairman Prem Kumar and secretary Ajoy C were also present for the meeting.