Kiran Rao: I look at the future with a lot of hope and believe that storytelling will continue to diversify

Kiran Rao recently highlighted how women's stories have long been absent from popular films. She attributes this to the economic dependency of women, which limits their influence over cinema choices. Kiran Rao said that women's stories have not found a place in popular films for a very long time for various reasons. She said that she would attribute this, in part, to the fact that women are not always economically independent. She said,"They do not (often) have their own money, and they are not able to go out and buy a cinema ticket. The decision of what to watch is often made by men. I would argue that films which have these sort of big machos (protagonists) have been as popular as they are because, traditionally, it has been men deciding both what films are made and what films are watched." Kiran says that however, she thinks there has been slow but significant change. "We've seen a lot more women's stories being told and a greater participation of women in the film industry. I now have many more female colleagues working as directors, cinematographers, and in other key decision-making roles, including producers - one of the most important positions to have women in - as well as writers," she says. Kiran says that this shift was much needed, and it is finally happening. "I look to the future with a lot of hope and believe that storytelling will continue to diversify. Of course, we can keep having films with male heroes. But many of us - both in this country and around the world - feel underrepresented in popular culture. Hopefully, we will see more stories that reflect this diversity, including women's stories, queer stories, and narratives from diverse backgrounds of caste and class," she says.