By Swati Sharan

 After Pakistani Oscar winner Sharmin Obaid Chinoy’s women filmmaker mentoring team comes Indian Oscar winner Guneet Monga’s crew of Indian women filmmakers. As a partnership between the Women in Film Chapter of India, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), a team of 6 women filmmaker delegates were flown in for the Toronto International Film Festival 2025 (TIFF 2025).  The women were from different regions in India. It was the first time such an effort took place.

The idea was to help selected women overcome traditional challenges for succeeding at an international level. At the Bharat Pavilion, one witnessed the intensity of the meetings that were taking place for these women to learn how to succeed in the film industry. Guneet’s focus seemed directed towards funding. Taxation, grants and international partnering were some of the topics being covered at these meetings.

Though Women in Film chapters exist across the globe, the chapter has only been established recently in India. Guneet is its founder. Overall, there are a cluster of efforts being placed by different bodies from India at the Bharat Pavilion besides the afore-mentioned. They don’t just promote those featuring a film at TIFF.  The Indian government also has a provision by which people from other countries can work with locals within India. Some of this is subsidizing costs for shooting films and connecting you with locals for certain film disciplines. Others relate to tax incentives. 

The overall emphasis is to stimulate job opportunities in India within the entertainment sector. They also promote film festivals like the Goa Film Festival and the Waves Bazaar. The Waves Bazaar is a film market where people can buy the viewing and distributing rights to different films. This is also part of the Goa Film Festival. 

So if Anurag Kashyap wrote the book on crowdfunding in India, Guneet wrote it on grants. Grants are like film scholarships where you fill out applications for funds. Navigating through these can be a gargantuan task. Most people come out daunted. But this is Guneet’s forte. She can make the whole process look effortless. She hooked these women up with different funding body representatives who broke down the criteria in a very approachable way. 

For example, you don’t need to be a scientist to qualify for a sci-fi grant. You could just create a character with an illness as part of your drama in a key role. And if you don’t qualify for a grant from another country directly, you can forge partnerships with people from there. Telefilms Canada, for example, allows for this. 

In fact, people can qualify for grants under many categories. Some of these include women in film, education, science and social or environmental subjects. In fact, the animated Dandelion’s Odyssey (see TIFF 2025 Film Reviews) is a great example of going through scientific channels to get funding for a very fascinating film relating to the environment. Many films, in fact, are made from grants by governments, NGOs or non-profits or even through private interests in many countries. Booths from different countries and industry bodies were surrounding the festival through different stalls or sessions. 

In the wake of glasnost on the sexism of the Indian film industry in the last few years, grants may be the elixir for Indian women to thrive internationally. Or even domestically for that matter. Payal Kapadia did it after all through foreign partnerships. Traditionally, the avenues for women to succeed behind the scenes in the Indian film industry have been scarce. 

So much so that even Rhea Kapoor (Anil Kapoor’s daughter) struggled so much for funding for her film Veere di Wedding. Though much has improved in the last 7 years since then, this speaks volumes about women’s struggles behind the scenes. And if more women can’t get behind the scenes, how can they change what’s happening in front? We can’t call technology or tiktok the equalizer in a country that lacks a social safety net though it’s improved the level playing field. 

Indeed then, by working with such a public partnership, Guneet has used her influence positively to formalize what was necessary. It’s a great public access. While the west has quotas or social activism surrounding women in streams ranging from science to film, India barely has it on skills relating to science, which is supposedly a more substantial subject. So to be able to jump on the film bandwagon for female representation is a highly commendable feat. Kudos for the perseverance!