00:00Hi, this is Madhura Palit for Brute.
00:22Being here suddenly, it's kind of overwhelming.
00:25It's a little bit scary, I'm petrified, but it's amazing.
00:55The problem where it lies, I believe, is India doesn't take its serious films seriously.
01:10There are good films which can come to a festival like this,
01:15but then I don't think there's an initiative to send it here.
01:20So we have to, I think, stop being selfish and propagate and promote films.
01:27And that also is the responsibility of the audience to help out, not only for the authority.
01:39I always knew that something like becoming a doctor or engineer or doing a white-collar job is not for me.
01:46That I knew.
01:47And then I had my parents who are art photographers.
01:49So I had that thing of exposure, film stock, developing in the house always since growing up.
01:56So somehow the germ was there inside me, I guess.
02:04There's a lot of times when I've gone for a meeting with the executive producers
02:09and they have spoken to me after two, three minutes
02:12and I realize they're talking to me about something completely different
02:15that has nothing to do with what I'm doing.
02:17And I would be like, I'm here for the DOP thing.
02:21And they'd be like, oh, I thought you're the costume AD.
02:26So that keeps on happening.
02:28Whenever you're a technical person working in the industry, especially in India,
02:34you face a lot of things.
02:37There is always gendering of a certain job that comes across.
02:42Like cinematography somehow is a male job.
02:46The job itself is gendered.
02:48It's picturized as huge men, brawny men shooting with huge, large cameras.
02:56So the obstacles I face are like this.
02:59My obstacle is always trying to reach the floor
03:02because I know if I have the floor, then nobody can complain.
03:06Then it's completely under my control.
03:08But the cynicism, the skepticism, the hypocrisy that I face before reaching that
03:13is where all the struggle is.
03:15Once you're on the floor, then it's my ballgame.
03:17Then I am the king. I know it. I can do it.
03:24I completely believe women should worry about it
03:27because there is a problem is there's always a cynicism that comes first.
03:32Nobody looks at your craft at the first glance.
03:36They first look at what are you.
03:38Are you a male? Are you a female?
03:39Are you six feet? Are you five feet?
03:41Do you weigh 80 kgs or do you weigh less than that?
03:45The problem is there.
03:46Nobody asks, can you light it up?
03:48Do you know how to use this camera?
03:50Do you know how this camera functions?
03:52Nobody asks that.
03:53Everybody asks, can you lift up a camera?
03:55Lifting up the camera is not the only thing that a DOP does, right?
04:03It's a crazy time happening.
04:04There is a different dynamics of everything that happens.
04:08At the end of the day, I hope India as a nation wins
04:11and nothing else.
04:13That we all stay together, be happy and support each other
04:16and there is more of love and less of hate.
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