Charu Khurana remembers watching Hollywood films like “Star Wars” and “King Kong” as a child. Their special effects, prosthetics and makeup sparked her interest in the craft. She studied makeup in Los Angeles and returned to India to work in the film industry, only to discover that a 59-year-old rule barred women from becoming makeup artists in movies.
Thirty-two-year-old Khurana, who lives in New Delhi, said women artists had to abandon the profession or work illegally, often giving credit for their work to male colleagues so that the union of makeup artists wouldn’t find out.
After being fined 25,000 rupees ($406) for working on a Tamil movie, Khurana sought legal recourse. The Supreme Court vindicated her stand this week by instructing the Maharashtra chapter of the Cine Costume Make-up Artists and Hair Dressers Association to allow women to take membership as makeup artists and without the need to hold a domicile certificate of Maharashtra, another prerequisite that prevented those from outside the state from working in Bollywood.
“The Supreme Court directed the union to remove the clause pertaining to women and domicile. They will have to comply within 10 days,” said Jotika Kalra, the lawyer who represented Khurana in the case.
For Khurana, the verdict is a vindication of her fight against the misogyny that she and other women artists have faced in the film industry, both in Bollywood and in southern India.
“We have to do makeup in vans, or in hotel rooms, because the union could raid the sets anytime and fine us. Our names never appear in the credits and there is always a male makeup artist on set, even though he may not be working,” Khurana said.
In the early years, Bollywood did not have too many women working behind the scenes. Men handled costumes and makeup and even played the role of women up until the 1950s because working in films wasn’t considered an honourable profession.
Even after women started working in films, the union rules only allowed them to register as hairdressers, never as makeup artists, thus depriving them of rightful wages and the chance to expand their skills.
A makeup artist can earn anywhere between 5,000 rupees ($81) to 25,000 rupees ($406) a day, Khurana said, adding several qualified female artists had to turn away from the film industry and settle for weddings or other events because of the archaic rule.
charu3“They think that women coming into the profession might harm their prospects, but that isn’t true. This is a modern industry. We have female directors and producers, so why not makeup artists. There is place for whoever works well,” Khurana said.
On its part, the union, which boasts of 1,780 makeup artists in Maharashtra alone, said men have always been makeup artists and women always the hairdressers.
“That’s just the way things were. We weren’t against women as such,” said Sharad Shelar, the president of the Maharashtra chapter of the union.
The union said it would comply with the Supreme Court order, but Khurana said it won’t immediately make a difference on the ground.
“The mindset can be changed on paper, but to change it in the mind will take a very long time. It is a very difficult process and we have a long way to go,” she said.
For now, Khurana said she was happy that she wouldn’t have to sneak around a film set anymore.