In its fourth year, the O Womaniya! 2024 Report aims to analyse the year-on-year growth in the representation of women in the Indian entertainment industry - whether its on-screen or behind it - including the corporate decision-makers. This helps identify the gaps, challenges, and opportunities for creating a more gender-balanced and inclusive industry.
Additionally, this year taking a step further from retrospection, we have introduced the O Womaniya! Toolkit which is a more solution-driven approach for gender equality in the industry. With this toolkit, the hope is to identify the disparity at the development stage for properties and take the necessary steps to rectify the imbalance in representation.
Creative Talent | Bechdel Test O Womaniya! Toolkit
Trailer Talk Time
Corporate Talent | Company Policies
Director & Head – Production, International Originals, Prime Video, India
2024 will go down in history as the year that saw two
female-led films walk away with all the glory at two of the
biggest film festivals – Cannes and Sundance! Yet, the reality
back home couldn’t be more different. While there is visible
shift in dynamics, an equitable representation for women in
Indian media and entertainment remains a distant dream.
The new edition of the O Womaniya! Report further deep dives
into female representation in Indian entertainment. It
uncovers disparities and pinpoints opportunities for change.
It also calls on industry stakeholders to amplify progress and
drive transformation across the entertainment landscape.
Despite the growing presence of female-led narratives and the
positive work of streaming services in championing stories led
by women in front of and behind the camera, the gender divide
persists in key creative roles. Women remain underrepresented
as directors, screenwriters, and producers, limiting the
richness of storytelling by narrowing balanced perspectives.
Addressing this imbalance is not only about achieving gender
parity but unlocking the full potential of Indian
entertainment by creating stories that resonate universally,
reflect diversity, and inspire change.
It is promising to see that female-driven projects and
stories, particularly in the video streaming sector, are
challenging traditional beliefs about their commercial
viability and appeal. These stories are bold, nuanced, and are
making a significant impact, both in India and globally,
demonstrating that female leadership in creative roles is not
just essential but transformative.
At Prime Video India, we are proud to collaborate with Ormax
Media and Film Companion Studios on this year’s edition of O
Womaniya!. This initiative reflects our commitment to
championing female representation, promoting inclusion, and
amplifying voices that have often been unheard. By fostering
meaningful conversations about female representation, we aim
to inspire actionable change and pave the way for a more
equitable future!
A whole lot of what happens in front of the camera is determined by the decisions made behind it.
When women are put in key decision-making roles, we observe a tangible shift towards more inclusive content, diverse storytelling, and an increasingly varied hiring policy. This much needed change will enable the generation to take command over the narrative, dismantle existing gender norms, and nudge the industry in the direction of equitable gender representation.
To measure the shift created by female representation in decision-making roles, we looked at the number of women in key Head of Department (HOD) positions across our selected 169 properties to understand the lay of the land in 2023.
HOD positions analysed: Direction | Cinematography | Editing | Writing | Production Design
2022
2023
We see an increase across formats, however marginal, so that’s an improvement from 2022. However, the gap between theatrical and streaming properties continues to exist.
Streaming is leading the way with a 20-point percentage of female HOD representation while theatrical still needs to get with the programme.
means female characters this year have had more fulfilling arcs where their interest, opinions, and issues are part of the storyline, at least to an extent.
2022
2023
2022
2023
The increase we see in the previous graph is largely owed to theatrical and streaming films where female characters seem to be faring better as compared to those in streaming series.
Females in-charge of commissioning content have taken the lead while the male commissioning in-charge hardly sees a change. This makes it quite evident who is responsible for the improved Bechdel score this year.
2022
2023
Females in-charge of commissioning content have taken the lead while the male commissioning in-charge hardly sees a change. This makes it quite evident who is responsible for the improved Bechdel score this year.
As with everything, our understanding of gender representation in Indian entertainment has evolved in the last few decades. Today, a few scenes or dialogues do not constitute an equitable representation. We now look for a well-developed arc, a variety of emotions, and maybe even an actual conflict to address.
Instead of looking back at the properties once they have already been made, we created a toolkit that could help writers, creators, or even producers maintain gender diversity in their properties right from the get-go.
Through pointed questions, the O Womaniya! Toolkit helps identify gender representation in a property at the development stage. Because prevention is better than cure, isn't it?
Full disclosure, this is the first time we have created a test like this and applied it for O Womaniya! but someone had to do it.
To pass the O Womaniya! Toolkit, a property must reflect a positive response on all FOUR of the following questions.
The positive or correct answer for the first three questions is “YES”, while that for the fourth question is “NO”.
Here are the guidelines for the O Womaniya! Toolkit that can provide clarity on how to apply the questions.
Streaming series lead the way with the highest number of properties that pass the Toolkit and as expected, theatrical films come in last.
As expected, female commissioning in-charges are more cognizant of the need for gender diversity and equal representation in content. The more than double difference between the female and male counterparts is a clear indication that men still don’t take gender into account while commissioning content.
This is a meagre 2 percentage point increase from last year. And while an increase in talk time is a positive, the low share of voice is hardly good news.
2022
2023
2022
2023
Each format has seen a nominal growth at best. Even in streaming trailers, which are performing better than theatrical trailers, just about 1/3rd of the total speaking time is allotted to female characters.
We see just a marginal growth in the past year in trailer talk time for properties commissioned by women. On the other hand, the growth rate of trailer talk time for properties commissioned by men sees no change at all.
2022
2023
We see just a marginal growth in the past year in trailer talk time for properties commissioned by women. On the other hand, the growth rate of trailer talk time for properties commissioned by men sees no change at all.
55%+ FEMALE TRAILER TALK TIME
Boo | Jhimma 2 | Taali | Rainbow Rishta Baipan Bhari Deva | Made In Heaven S2 Wedding.con | Lust Stories 2 | Sweet Kaaram Coffee Gaslight | Kumari Srimathi | Jhansi S2 Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo | Aarya S3 Sapta Sagaradaache | Ello Side-A | Baby Chhatriwali | The Kerala Story Masterpeace | Jaane Jaan | PI Meena | One Friday Night | Hi Nanna
Boo
Jhimma 2
Taali
Rainbow Rishta
Baipan Bhari Deva
Made In Heaven S2
Wedding.con
Lust Stories 2
Sweet Kaaram Coffee
Gaslight
Kumari Srimathi
Jhansi S2
Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo
Aarya S3
Sapta Sagaradaache
Ello Side-A
Baby
Chhatriwali
The Kerala Story
Masterpeace
Jaane Jaan
PI Meena
One Friday Night
Hi Nanna
To understand how deep gender disparity runs in the Indian entertainment industry we analysed 144 Director and CXO positions across 25 top media and entertainment companies.
Representation at the top level is crucial to understand because of the systemic nature of gender equality in the industry. When the table is shared with underrepresented voices and communities, we see a shift in the content we consume, and values we applaud, as a society. This is also a good marker for the amount of opportunities the industry provides to those whose stories and voices need to be heard for change to take place. Because when real change begins at the top, the trickle-down effect will be much more evident and impactful.
Independent Consultant Gender Equality and Women's Economic Empowerment
Dear Reader,
Another year has rolled by since we last reviewed India’s
Media and Entertainment Industry’s performance on gender
equality. Sadly no surprises this year either, with women
trailing behind men in pretty much all departments of
filmmaking – be it in the boardroom, on screen or behind the
scenes!! Media and entertainment (both theatrical and
streaming) no doubt offers a ready escape to millions of
viewers from the tedium of daily life. We also believe it has
the potential to influence and shape trends on promoting
gender equality, which is sadly underwhelming at present, as
revealed in the report.
But we remain hopeful!! And in this endeavour, we introduce O
Womaniya! Toolkit developed specifically to assess gender
inclusivity and responsiveness of media and entertainment in
India. The toolkit engages on the complex challenges related
to the pursuit of achieving gender equality and is imbued with
a ‘Southern sensibility’. The toolkit, while building on the
globally acclaimed ‘Bechdel Test’, adopts a more holistic and
context specific approach to gauge gender responsiveness of
the Indian entertainment industry.
The toolkit is by no means comprehensive or foolproof, despite
our best efforts to keep it objective. We realise we cannot
rule out bias and subjectivity, given gender is imbued in
socio-cultural beliefs and cultural norms. That said, we see
this as an important beginning and our earnest wish that there
will be more takers for the tool. And with greater usage we
will be able to improve and refine it. We invite you one and
all to use it and tell us what works, what works less well and
how we can improve on it. We see this as a beginning of many
conversations and hope it will stimulate debate and discussion
on how the Indian Media and Entertainment industry can lead by
example and embrace gender and diversity as its core value.
On other news, female commissioning in charge are inching past
their male counterparts and promoting gender inclusivity in
their handling of content. Along with an increase in share of
young female editors. This is especially true for streaming.
The report also reveals a significant improvement in media and
entertainment companies’ commitment to gender sensitive
corporate policies. We hope this uptick will make the media
and entertainment companies more attractive to female talent
in the future and help retain them. While on paper these
incremental positive change no doubt signals a commitment to
fostering a more gender responsive work culture, at least in
principle, the challenge going forward is making this a
reality. And holding media and entertainment companies to
account so they have a competitive edge for being ‘inclusive’.
That would be a story worth telling!