Prime Video releases ‘O Womaniya!’ 2024 report; highlights gaps in female representation
Prime Video, in collaboration with media consulting firm Ormax Media and Film Companion Studios, has unveiled the latest edition of the ‘O Womaniya!’ report.
The 2024 study focuses on female representation in Indian entertainment, analysing 169 films and series released in 2023 across nine Indian languages: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, and Gujarati. This research spans both streaming and theatrical releases, examining key areas such as content, creative talent, corporate leadership, and marketing.
The report introduces the “Gender Equality Toolkit”, a new evaluation method to measure female representation in storytelling. This toolkit assesses whether women in films or series have agency and influence over their narratives. Among the titles analyzed, only 31% passed the test, with streaming series performing better, achieving a 45% success rate. The findings suggest that female-led commissioning significantly impacts representation, with 48% of such titles passing the test. The study also employed the more traditional “Bechdel Test” to evaluate content, revealing that nearly half of the titles failed to meet its criteria for female-centric interactions.
In creative roles, women held just 15% of Head of Department (HOD) positions across direction, cinematography, editing, writing, and production design. Streaming projects showed better representation, with over 20% of HOD roles helmed by women. Editing emerged as the leading field for female involvement, with 18% of projects, particularly on streaming platforms, having female editors.
Marketing efforts also showed limited progress, with women accounting for only 29% of talk time in promotional trailers. While this marks a slight improvement over previous years, growth remains slow. Streaming films demonstrated the highest tendency to give more prominence to female characters in trailers. Titles such as ‘Made in Heaven Season 2’ (Hindi), ‘Sweet Kaaram Coffee’ (Tamil), and ‘Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo’ (Hindi) ranked among the most inclusive in this regard.
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The corporate side of the industry remains a challenge, with only 12% of top leadership positions, such as Director or CXO roles, being held by women across 25 major media and entertainment companies. This figure reflects a slight decline from the previous year, highlighting a persistent gap in female representation in decision-making roles.
Sharing his thoughts on the latest findings in ‘O Womaniya!’ Shailesh Kapoor, Founder & CEO, Ormax Media, said, “With every edition of O Womaniya!, we have looked at expanding the scope of the report. In this year’s edition, the introduction of the Gender Equality Toolkit offers a nuanced perspective on representation of women in entertainment. The toolkit is designed to be action-oriented, and can help creators and producers evaluate new ideas at their end, from an inclusivity perspective.”
Speaking about the report, Anupama Chopra, Film Critic and Producer said, “The entertainment industry is under greater scrutiny than ever before. With every step forward and every gap left uncovered, stakeholders are reflecting on how they can drive meaningful change. Every action and conversation around gender inclusivity matters and with the ‘O Womaniya!’ Report and the newly launched Toolkit, we are moving closer to creating an equitable industry. I am deeply grateful to Prime Video and Ormax Media for their partnership in this groundbreaking initiative.”
