Bollywood's #MeToo reckoning: 'We thought it would take 20 more years'.

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India’s leading film festival struck several controversial films from its lineup to make room for female-directed features and address a mood of change. But will it halt harassment on set?

Women first … Veere Di Wedding, a Hindi female buddy comedy directed by Shashanka Ghosh. Photograph: Balaji Motion Pictures
▼ Introducing the recent series opener of India’s top-rated talk show, Koffee With Karan, the director-producer-personality Karan Johar championed Bollywood’s new-found “girl power”: 12 months of successes – such as the taut spy thriller Raaziand the raucous bridal comedy Veere di Wedding – that were led and authored by women. His guests, accordingly, were distaff royalty: reigning queen Deepika Padukone, newly radiant after surviving January’s  trial-by-fire film Padmaavat, and beaming princess Alia Bhatt, Raazi’s immensely talented young lead. Reclined on Johar’s Nortonesque couch, Bhatt was offered a cuddly Sophie’s choice between her much-Instagrammed cats and beau Ranbir Kapoor; Padukone raised a suggestive eyebrow after asked what she first notices in a man.
If the show’s peppy tone was enjoyable, it felt strangely removed from the grim claims emerging on social media from women occupying the film industry’s lower ranks. India’s #MeToo movement – initiated in early October and gathering rapid pace online – cast a looming shadow over this week’s Jio MAMI Mumbai film  festival, the event’s 20th. As creative director Smriti Kiran told me at the festival’s bustling Juhu hub: “#MeToo started to escalate two weeks before the festival, and we are one of India’s leading festivals, so everybody was looking at us. They wanted us to take responsibility.Wewanted to take responsibility.”

Deepika Padukone in Padmaavat. Photograph: PR
Sleeves were duly rolled up, red lines established. Two features and three shorts were struck from the programme after allegations were levelled against key creative personnel; another feature, the critically admired Balekempa, was withdrawn by producers following an anonymous Facebook post that accused writer-director Ere Gowda of sexual assault. At last Thursday’s opening ceremony, set against the majesty of old Bombay’s towering Gateway to India, festival director Anupama Chopra apologised to “all the people we have disappointed” while hoping “that the decision we took, to stand with the women who have raised their voices, will lead to an environment that is constructive, inclusive and just”. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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