Women hold only 13 per cent of senior leadership roles in Indian media and entertainment (M&E) companies, according to the third edition of the ‘O Womaniya!’ report.
The ratio, however, is slightly higher than the 10 per cent reported in 2021, but underscores a persistent gender gap in the industry.
The study evaluated 135 director and CXO positions across 25 top M&E companies, in which only 13 per cent were held by women, while 12 per cent of the 780 head of department (HOD) positions analysed across key departments — direction, cinematography, editing, writing, and production design — were occupied by women.
The growth has been primarily driven by streaming films and series, with theatrical films remaining stagnant.
The ‘O Womaniya!’ study, conducted by media consulting firm Ormax Media and Film Companion with the support of Prime Video, assesses the representation of women in various aspects of content production, marketing, and corporate leadership within India’s entertainment industry.
There are three major categories that the report focussed upon ‘content,’ which includes female representation on-screen and behind the camera; ‘marketing,’ examining the portrayal of women in promotional trailers of films and series; and ‘corporate,’ analysing female representation in the boardrooms of the top 25 M&E firms.
The report studied 156 films and series released in 2022 in eight Indian languages to provide a comprehensive overview of the industry’s progress since 2021.
More than half of the theatrical releases assessed failed the basic ‘Bechdel Test,’ an internationally accepted measure of female representation in cinema. This test says a film must feature at least one scene where two named female characters converse about something other than a man or men.
In the realm of trailers, women received just 27 per cent of talk time. Streaming films led the way with 33 per cent of talk time allocated to women.