Welcome to our exclusive interview series, Young Professionals in Heritage, where we delve into the vibrant world of young heritage professionals. This series shines a spotlight on the dynamic individuals who are shaping the future of the heritage sector.
Our guest this week is Smriti Dewan. Smriti is a screenplay writer, producer, and documentary maker. Her research is focused on feminism in history and mythology. She is also the author of a mytho-fiction book called Urmila.
Today the definition of “empowerment” is male. The world I try to build in my writing is one where a woman’s power comes from being a woman.
Let’s start with simple questions – How does the process of cultural heritage documentary-making begin? And why is it important to make such documentaries?
The process begins when a documentarian comes across a fascinating phenomenon that is largely unknown to the masses and feels the need to bring it to them and delve deep into it.
A country like ours is so vast and multi-cultural that no matter how well-read, well-traveled, well informed you might be there might still be a nugget that’s part of our culture and yet widely unknown. The tapestry of our country’s cultural heritage is so rich and expansive that we might never actually come to a point where we’ve exhausted it.
You have filmed in remote and obscure locations. What are the challenges you encounter while making these documentaries? How does one get funding or grants for such projects?
Several. The first is getting a Crew to said location. Getting permissions, as a lot of these places are not places that allow filming. It’s not as simple as it might be, say, for researchers. Where there’s a camera there are a bunch of formalities needed.
How does one get funding for such projects? The short answer is that one doesn’t. Funding, particularly for documentaries, is an arduous and often disappointing process. Producers and investors still don’t quite understand how documentaries work, because at the concept stage, it’s an amoeba, it could go in any direction when on the floor. It’s not as clear as a fiction film where there’s a story, script, etc. So most of these projects turn out to be self-funded passion projects where one just picks up the camera and goes and tries to sell the film at a later stage.
Religion and culture in India are so intertwined, how do you draw the line when choosing a topic for a cultural heritage documentary? How do you decide which aspects to show and which not to show?
You don’t. Because religion and culture both feed each other and there’s no way of cleanly slicing away one from the other. And that wouldn’t make for a whole perspective either, which as filmmakers is our priority. To present the entire picture.
We try our best to film everything because once the ball is rolling we try to get everything as you wouldn’t get that chance again. Then we decide at the edit table. Sometimes some angles don’t work with the kind of narrative you’re trying to tell. Sometimes it’s a little too complicated for an audience to grasp. So we let those bits go. But primarily I try my best to retain the passion of the narrative but try to be objective at the same time.
Our country is very patriarchal and as a woman when you film and interview people, how do they react to you? Have there been instances where you have experienced patriarchal misogyny?
Again, several. And experience teaches one to handle it in a certain way. Actually, it isn’t their fault. The world that they occupy, they don’t have any context of talking shop with women.
It then falls on you to make this person comfortable enough to open up in front of the camera for the documentary to feel authentic. It becomes your responsibility to not have your gender become an obstacle in your work.
Today many studies are being done to address the historical narratives written from a male point of view and provide a female counterpoint for these historical events. You are the author of a feminist mytho-fiction book called Urmilla. Why do you think it is important to write an Indian mytho-fiction from a female point of view?
To start with a cliché, yes history has been “his-story” mostly so far. I think just as there is a need for modern narratives to have women put their perspectives to balance the narrative that is was tipping significantly on one end.
Our culture and our mythology are the same way. We have been in such a dense cloud of the male perspective that we have subconsciously not even questioned how an entire gender’s POV has been missing. It wasn’t like women didn’t exist back then hence they’re only there to provide the male heroes motivation. Just like in today’s politics, women played a large role in the shaping of history and mythology as well.
And interesting this imbalance is fairly modern; the last few hundred years or so. The scriptures actually have an excellent balance and true representation of the female.
What role has feminist history played in shaping your understanding of gender equality and empowerment in your own life?
I think since the time I started thinking and composing the female narrative I became hyper-aware of the way societies and economies are structured to value only the labour put in by men, even though the structure of these systems depends on the free labour of women. I took a lot from my own life experience as well, I grew up without a mother, a homemaker. On the surface, it would seem more significant to have at least the breadwinner parent around more than the homemaker parent, but growing up like that makes you very aware of what you’re missing and the value a woman brings into a household, family, and parenting.
When I dive into the world of mythology and history, I find that the olden times have actually always acknowledged and valued female contribution far more than the modern world where women are supposedly more empowered. Today the definition of “empowerment” is male. The world I try to build in my writing is one where a woman’s power comes from being a woman.