“When you control the camera, you can play God,” says Modhura Palit, one of the few women cinematographers, who work across Indian film industries. “It is a liberating experience.” Palit—known for her work in films like Amar Colony (2022), Aator (2017) and Bahadur♓ (2023)—has had to face many challenges as one of the few women to break into a male-dominated territory. She remembers being denied a project once because they refused to arrange a washroom for her. “It is basic civic sense to provide washrooms for all crew members, not just women. But I was simply rejected for my biology. And they were unabashed about saying this to my face!” she says.
ꦏPalit was just 18 when she knew she wanted to work with cameras. A graduate of Mass Communication and Videography from St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, she recalls that when she started attending classes on how to operate cameras, the space really spoke to her. “I enjoyed the process because it was so empowering,” she says. Palit comes from a lineage of image making—both her parents are art photographers. By the time she started applying to film schools, she knew cinematography was her calling. Even though she got through both the courses on direction as well as cinematography at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata, Palit chose to go with the latter.
♎However, inspiring confidence on the sets became the biggest hurdle for her when she entered the profession. “When I first walked into a set as a woman cinematographer, no one believed me!” she laughs. She was often mistaken for an assistant director or a make-up artist at production sites in her initial days. “The most frequent question people asked me was, ‘Can you carry the camera on your shoulders?’ I think it also had to do with my small stature. Interestingly, male cinematographers are never asked this question! No one ever asked me, ‘Can you light this scene up in ten?’ Back when I began, physicality mattered much more than my craft,” says Palit, who primarily works in the Bengali film industry.
♒Despite the hurdles, at no point did she feel like she was in the wrong profession. “I decided to grit my teeth and go through with it, with the belief that my work would speak for itself and change these perceptions.” Over time, as productions began to see how fast the film was shot, how judiciously the resources were utilised and what kind of output she was delivering, work started to pour in for Palit. “The quality of my work put people at ease. And then they began to give me more projects,” she says.
🐻She has been working in the film industry for about six to seven years now. Yet, she thinks that somewhere at the back of people’s minds gender continues to factor into their decision to hire her. “Films with action scenes are still difficult to come by for me because it is assumed that I will not be able to shoot them as a woman,” she says.
𓂃At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, Palit became the first Indian to receive the prestigious Pierre Angénieux ExcelLens Award in Cinematography. When asked whether this changed things for the better, Palit sounds amused. “International recognition did nothing. People never understood what it was. They thought it was paid! Instead, I was pinned and marked as ‘too posh’ because I came with ‘outside recognition,’” she says. Palit believes that getting work in the industry has a lot to do with good public relations. “Even in networking, gender plays a role. When a woman doesn’t attend film-related social gatherings, people often make snide remarks like, ‘She thinks she knows everything!’ However, if men avoid these parties, they’re classy!” she says. Even though it is challenging to balance one’s way through these issues, Palit believes that at the end of the day, filmmakers know she will deliver a good product.
♑Apart from being a member of the Indian Society of Cinematographers and the Eastern India Cinematographers Association, Palit is also an active member of the Indian Women Cinematographers Collective (IWCC). She has been a part of IWCC since its inception and believes that associating with the Collective has been a huge boost of confidence, not just for her, but for women DPs across industries in India. “IWCC is a safe space for all of us. As women technicians, we often face a lot of doubts and conflicts, which we don’t feel confident communicating about with the outside world, as the concerns may be attributed to our gender. For instance, when two DPs are working on a project, sometimes the man gets credited and the woman does not. Or if a cinematographer is a working mother, she may want to know if a particular location has a crèche facility. IWCC is an enabling space where we can ask each other questions without being judged,” she says. The organisation has an organic route of membership. Existing members approach more nascent entrants in the field and their work is peer reviewed, after which they can join the collective. “You can’t always expect a woman to be toughened up just because she is a DP. This space helps us fight such perceptions. We have each other’s backs here without putting each other down,” says Palit.
🐷Such empowering solidarity becomes crucial in an industry ridden with dark stories of harassment and abuse. Though Palit has never personally encountered any form of violence, she has heard extensively from fellow women technicians about such experiences. “As heads of our departments, we are relatively safer. But junior women technicians are softer targets,” she says. The film industries in India do not offer benefits or protection to their employees like the corporate sector, because the film sector continues to remain unorganised. This is why there is still no formal mechanism to address instances of sexual harassment.
🍃“Survivors are often left with no other option but to go directly to the police,” says Palit. But she believes that things are changing with the empowering work of platforms like the Hema Committee. “In Kolkata, we are trying to come up with a similar collective to formalise a redressal mechanism. So that instances of sexual harassment occurring on film sets can come under the” she says.
𒆙“In the film industry, the first support for your work needs to come from your family. I have been lucky because my parents have always been supportive. They have only enquired after my safety, but never stopped me from pursuing any project,” says Palit. “If only redressal mechanisms against issues like harassment can be actualised, more families will be willing to send their daughters to work in the film industry.” As she sees it, glass ceilings exist everywhere. It is up to us to break them.
Apeksha Priyadarshini is senior copy editor, Outlook. she writes on cinema, art, politics, gender & social justice
This article is a part of Outlook's March 11, 2025 issue 'Women at Work', which explores the experiences of women in roles traditionally occupied by men. It appeared in print as 'The Female Gaze’.
