The first blow came after Mitta Antony finished her course on make-up artistry at the Pattanam Rasheed Institute in Kochi. She, with her husband Antony, had sacrificed a lot to raise the fees of one-and-a-half lakh rupees. Mitta made sure she worked hard and finished the course with the highest marks. She thought it’d be easier now. That she’d get a membership at the FEFKA (Film Employees Federation of India), and begin working on movies as a make-up artiste. But she was told female make-up artistes are not given membership. That had been the practice for 59 years, barring women from being classified as make-up artistes in the Indian film industry. But a Supreme Court order in 2014 had lifted this ‘ban’, stating it would not allow this ‘constitutionally impermissible discrimination’ anymore.
But the order had not helped Mitta get a membership. And without one, it was not easy to find work in films. “It was so bad because I was running a beauty parlour and it was going pretty well when I took a break to learn this course. It was the only income to our family of four — we had two small kids, aged one and two, by then. But I just had to go. It was all that was in my mind. Every time I looked at an actor, I was looking at the colour of the lipstick, the clothes...,” says Mitta, sitting at a café in Kochi. She had just come back from Iranjalakuda, working on the movie Pixelia. Year 2017 has been looking good for Mitta after she got up from a near-death experience in a private hospital in Kochi.
“It happened at a time my career was finally looking good, a few projects coming together — a Tamil film Imai, a Marathi work Jat Jatin. But then suddenly, I fell ill because of a mistake by the hospital and I was bedridden for months. There was no one to support except my husband,” Mitta says. But then she had always risen from the many great falls she’s had in life. When the FEFKA didn’t allow her in, she began taking whatever little works she got, for really small payments. She cringed when she was labelled a hairstylist, the reluctance to accept a female make-up artiste. Luck would finally show up in her life when she got an assignment in Muscat to be part of an international project — an Arabic film that had seven technicians from India. “I was somebody who was very afraid of travel. But the 68 days in Muscat with these wonderful technicians changed my life.” There she made friends who’d help her at times of need. There was one Uday Kumar Tanti, bhai to her, who’d help the most. She worked in his film Blackout.
Mitta went to Mumbai, stayed at Uday’s place and with money she did not have, got membership from the CCMAA (Cine Costume And Make Up Artist Association). It had not been easy. It took her three days even to meet the president who would take her seriously and let her apply. Each time she stood at the railway station to take a train home thinking it is over, she’d get a call from the association asking her to submit yet another document. When she finally got that prestigious card that she now lifts from her bag and shows, Mitta had thought it will be easy to get work back home now. Law stated that a card from an association in India should make her eligible for work anywhere in the country. But then all that waited for her was more hostility.
She took up a documentary work of the Kochi Muziris project on Sahodaran Ayyappan, by C-DIT. There were no female assistants to be found, so she’d get men to help. “These assistants would all leave in a couple of days. And I understood they were not encouraged to work with me.” At the end of all those, when the credits rolled out, her name was not there. “I decided that even if I starve, I won’t go for such work again.” So she started taking up work in Mumbai — albums or other little works. “I was going there so often I had thought of shifting base with my family.”
The Mumbai friendships helped again. Sameer Baghela offered her a feature film work - Reflection. That’s how 2016 was going to be different. But then she fell ill. “Then I got a call from C-DIT again to work on a documentary fiction — Mohammad Abdur Rahiman Sahib. I said I won’t be able to. But the call came again saying I must do it. It seems there was opposition in taking me, and so they were all the more determined to hire me.” In March this year, she went. Slowly but steadily she came back to the life she dreamt of. Young cinematographer Uma Kumarapuram got her on board for her directorial debut Across the Ocean. Pixelia came through Sanal Aman, young actor and friend. She is also working on a movie with Sajitha Madathil.
