Arkapaw wins historic Oscar while Indian women cinematographers confront bias

When Autumn Durald Arkapaw accepted the Oscar for Best Cinematography astatine the 2026 Academy Awards, it marked astir a period of exclusion for women — and women of colour — down the camera. In India, wherever cinematography remains 1 of the astir male-dominated departments connected movie sets, her triumph resonated deeply. Women DOPs, from National Award winners Anjuli Shukla and Savita Singh to Priya Seth, Modhura Palit, Kavya Sharma and Preetha Jayaraman, person gradually carved abstraction successful a guarded field.

Even arsenic women DOPs’ enactment begins to reshape however Indian cinema looks, disparity persists. Talent is often sidelined owing to gender. Four cinematographers measurement successful connected however visibility, mentorship, and persistence volition redesign the aboriginal for generations of women wielding the lens. They besides shared a fewer commercialized insights. Seth, for instance, wishes to bash distant with overly acheronian visuals and Jayaraman despises the usage of zoom lens for enactment sequences. Both Palit and Sharma are acceptable to discontinue the vertical format, “I don’t deliberation it’s cinematic,” says Sharma. As for a changeable they volition ne'er tyre of, Jayaraman mentions the “dolly shot”, for Palit, it is the “close-up of faces”, and for Seth, “a well-crafted, well-rehearsed ‘oner’.”

Then determination are “small-big wins” connected acceptable that lone they would notice. Sharma gets excited anytime idiosyncratic from her squad gets a bully thought that she hasn’t thought of, portion for Palit, it is simply a “good camera cognition successful a shot”. For Jayaraman, it is “women feeling safe” connected her set.

Kavya Sharma: ‘The manager didn’t privation a pistillate DP’

“Visibility and practice is powerful,” says Sharma (Aarya Season 3, 2023-24; The Waking of a Nation, 2025). “When creation is created by a divers group, it reflects a wider scope of quality experiences.” Jubilant astir Arkapaw’s win, she stresses that designation unsocial isn’t enough. “I anticipation it wakes up radical successful the manufacture to the spread successful representation,” she says.

Sharma’s interruption came with Aarya Season 3, aft climbing the ranks done second-unit work. She credits manager Ram Madhvani for the chance: “Without hesitation, helium works with women,” she says, noting that specified enactment reshapes not conscionable hiring but the filmmaking process itself. Madhvani, too, notes Sharma’s qualities: hunger, focus, and perspectives shaped by lived experience. “The galore roles that women play enrich however they spot a scene,” helium says.

Sharma highlights however having women successful the unit changes dynamics connected set. “It’s not conscionable astir being seen; it’s astir the energy, however scenes are imagined, the mode characters are treated. That’s important for storytelling.”

Access remains the hardest part. Sharma has faced blunt bias: “I’ve been told to my face: the manager didn’t privation a pistillate DP.” Misconceptions astir physicality, she adds, are outdated. “It’s not that we can’t, it’s that radical won’t determination past their ideas.”

Priya Seth: ‘Where are you going to get acquisition if nary 1 gives you a break?’

Arkapaw’s Oscar is inspiring but bittersweet for Seth. Within hours of the win, the Indian Women Cinematographers Collective (IWCC) chat, of which she is simply a member, had shifted from solemnisation to frustration. “Along with the large news, determination were truthful galore heart-breaking stories,” she says. A crowdsourced database of biases followed: “‘If I sprout with a pistillate DP, the enactment volition beryllium excessively slow’; ‘too galore women connected the unit already’.”

After 90-plus years of dilatory change, “the words haven’t changed; the attack hasn’t changed,” says Seth, who made her diagnostic debut with Barah Aana in 2009 and navigates advertisement films, features, and web-series. “It is simply a antheral stronghold,” she concurs. Barriers are present little astir method accomplishment oregon physicality than entree and bias. Hiring decisions often mention deficiency of acquisition portion denying women the accidental to physique it. “Where are you going to get acquisition if nary 1 gives you a break?” she asks. Even aft shooting large-scale enactment and warfare films like Airlift (2016) and Pippa (2023), momentum didn’t automatically follow. Physicality myths persist, she says. “It’s astir skill, preparation, and focus.”

Allyship is crucial, she says, crediting manager Raja Menon for backing her consistently. “You cannot bash this alone. Someone has to beryllium consenting to spell retired connected a limb for you.” Menon their archetypal collaboration. Once helium approved a take, but Seth asked for another. “I similar idiosyncratic who owns up,” helium says. Seth’s framing and empathy shaped the communicative successful both Airlift and Pippa, helium notes.

Seth stresses that perseverance, community, and networks similar the IWCC are captious for semipermanent change: “It’s not conscionable astir 1 movie oregon 1 triumph — it’s astir visibility, solidarity, and gathering a way for those coming aft us.”

Preetha Jayaraman: ‘We’ve ever been alert that we are a minority’

“We’ve ever been alert that we are a minority, not conscionable successful India but globally,” says Preetha Jayaraman, noting that lone 4 women had been nominated for cinematography successful astir a period of Academy Awards. With implicit 20 years successful the industry, moving crossed Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi films, including Abhiyum Naanum (2008), Vaanam Kottatum (2020), Tadka (2022), and Bad Girl (2025), Jayaraman believes that accidental is the main obstruction for women down the camera, and says, “the calls don’t come”.

Jayaraman describes Bad Girl as “one of the astir fulfilling experiences” of her life, reflecting connected the uncommon alignment of a pistillate director, a female-led narrative, and her ain ocular approach. “If they privation a pistillate to sprout it, that’s fine, but it shouldn’t beryllium tokenism. They should travel to you due to the fact that they cognize you’re going to springiness thing to the film.”

Visibility matters beyond the crew, she says, “When the camera is successful a woman’s hands, position changes. People spot relationships, emotion, and nuance differently. That is powerful.”

Trained nether seasoned cinematographer P.C. Sreeram, she notes, mentorship is key. “We person to beryllium visible, to talk up astir challenges, to normalise women down the camera. That’s the lone mode systemic alteration happens.”

Modhura Palit: ‘Staying seen and continuing to bash my work, that is simply a triumph’

Simply wanting to “do cinematography” landed Palit astatine Kolkata’s Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, wherever she was the lone pistillate crossed 3 batches. Entering the profession, her consciousness sharpened: “Nobody asked maine astir my work. They asked if I could assistance the camera, if I could grip agelong hours.” The situation was little proving accomplishment than dismantling assumptions.

Opportunities are inactive filtered done bias. “Filmmakers determine what women tin shoot,” Palit says, explaining however projects are often framed astir notions of “sensitive handling,” narrowing some the enactment and cognition of women DOPs. On set, authorization matters. “If they spot you cognize your job, they don’t attraction if you’re a miss oregon boy. Then they go your biggest supporters.” Palit rejects simplistic ideas of a “female gaze,” emphasising that differences successful ocular attack are often overstated. Endurance is key. “Staying seen and continuing to bash my work, that is simply a triumph,” she says.

Palit’s filmography spans determination and diagnostic films, including Ami O Manohar (2018), Amar Colony (2022), and Bahadur: The Brave (2023). She won the Pierre Angénieux ExcelLens grant astatine the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, a designation she describes arsenic “a reminder that women tin pb visually, adjacent successful spaces historically dominated by men.” She stresses mentorship and visibility arsenic crucial. “If young women spot idiosyncratic similar maine doing this work, it shows them it’s possible. That matters arsenic overmuch arsenic the films themselves.”

The writer is simply a Mumbai-based freelance writer who writes connected cinema.