It was 1983, when the Kannada film industry witnessed its first-ever female director with the release of Phaniyamma directed by Prema Karanth, a noted theatre personality who started off as a costume designer and later switched to art direction before venturing into direction. Since Prema, the wife of renowned film and theatre personality BV Karanth, a handful of female directors have made a mark for themselves in the male dominated film industry. Recently, a couple of newcomers have joined the exclusive club of limited number of women directors in Sandalwood. We report on the women directors in the Kannada film industry.
The most recent to join the club is Rashmi P Karchi, who has an in MSc in psychology, and is currently working on her PhD. She is a dance enthusiast and writes poems in her leisure time. Rashmi who started her journey as an assistant director in Sorry Kane with Roopesh as the hero and director, turned independent director with the film Dhoolipata.
“As a female director, I feel proud to be a part of the Sandalwood industry. However, I honestly feel that gender doesn’t matter. What matters most is how best one works and achieves their aspirations. Dedication is most important,” says Rashmi. She adds that her interest in dance and music helped her become a part of films too. “Support is another important aspect, be it from actors, technicians and producers, it can ease the work for any women to realise her dreams of telling her stories on the big screen,” she adds.
There is Vijayalakshmi Singh, who hails from a well-known family of film personalities, who started from scratch, first working as a costume designer for the film Bharjari Bete that was released in 1981 directed by her brother Rajendra Singh Babu, starring Shankarnag, Ambareesh, Jayamala and others. Later, she even worked as executive producer and turned actress before making her directorial debut in E Bandhana which featured Sahasasimha Vishnuvardhan, Jayapradha and others. She feels that it was Vishnu Sir, her guru, who pushed her to take up direction. She is busy these days with Yaana through which she is launching her three daughters.
Insofar as the dearth of female directors in the industry is concerned, she explains that she had called for several female assistants but various factors such as work timings, safety etc, make them leave the job in the middle. Suman Kittur, another director recently made it to the list of top 10 best women directors from the Indian sub-continent. Her Edegarike was screened in more than 25 various film festivals across the globe. Her previous venture Kiragoorina Gayyaligalu was appreciated by both the audience and critics. There is also Kavitha Lankesh, who rose to fame with Deveeri. She is busy with a children’s film Summer Holidays which also features her daughter Esha.
