"I was in shock.” Ekta Kapoor shared anecdotes about facing sexism and talked about how women continue to deal with it in various workplaces. She was speaking at FICCI Frames 2024, with Brut as the cultural partner. #FICCIFrames
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Me and my mom started the company
00:01People said, why aren't you using your dad's name?
00:03He is the big name
00:05You both are the flunkies on the side
00:07Recently this happened
00:09I went for a meeting
00:10There were lots of men in the room
00:12And in five minutes
00:15They had made a circle of people standing
00:18And for almost five minutes, I was standing alone
00:22A few minutes later, a few women were there
00:24And I was supposed to go and stand with them
00:25I might be going against the tide and saying this
00:31But a lot of women wait for their husbands to buy
00:33Their tickets in the theater
00:35The choice of movies
00:38That's where I was actually going at
00:40Because you know what happens
00:41You see TV, streaming
00:43These are platforms
00:45And they're great
00:46But when you talk about a really like a high-end
00:52High big budget
00:53Hundred crore film
00:55And you say, okay, Deepika is there or Alia is there
00:58Definitely the film because they're led by these women
01:01But when you start talking about slightly radical topics about women
01:06On film and extremely conservative mediums like television
01:10There's still resistance
01:11I'd like to point out something
01:13I personally, I'm a firm believer that in the last 30 years
01:17From the time I came and people were calling me lady producer
01:20There's a huge change
01:23I mean, no one really knew how can a producer be a woman
01:27And me and my mom started the company
01:29People said, why don't you use your dad's name?
01:31He is the big name
01:33You both are the flunkies on the side
01:36And from there, it's changed a lot
01:38But just recently this happened
01:40I went for a meeting
01:42And I went with a friend of mine who's another producer
01:45He's a boy
01:46And it was a lot of executives
01:49And there were lots of men in the room
01:52And in five minutes, they had made a circle of people standing
01:58And for almost five minutes, I was standing alone
02:02And I was in shock
02:04Because I was like, okay, this is funny
02:07Why is this happening?
02:08And then a few minutes later, a few women were there
02:11And I was supposed to go and stand with them
02:13And I was in a bit of a shock
02:15And this was like this high-end top brass executive meeting
02:20And I turned around and I told my friend
02:21I said, does this happen often?
02:23And he said, I don't know
02:25I really made it a point after that to ask a lot of women
02:28Working in a few organizations around there
02:32And they said, we are in a room
02:35And normally someone will turn around and say
02:38Okay, when these girls leave, we'll crack that joke
02:41And I felt so like upset
02:44Not because of anything else
02:45But because if it can happen to me
02:48At where I stand, which I feel is a bit
02:52I've so-called reached somewhere
02:54How tough it must be for women to feel included
02:59And therefore, I feel we still are a long way
03:02Because the mindset in so many organizations still hasn't changed