What happens when a Psychology student from Delhi University, who dabbles in street photography and who was also an RJ, moves to Mumbai eager to begin a career in films? While her first feature film as a director is taking some time to happen, Shikha is busy directing TV commercials and recently wrapped up her documentary — Bachelor Girls . With a keen interest in world cinema and street photography, she wanted to use the visual medium to tell stories. Besides directing TV commercials, she has also made short films.
What triggered ‘Bachelor Girls’?
It all started with my own bad experiences while house hunting when I moved to Mumbai a few years ago. Back then, I dismissed them thinking I am plain unlucky. Over the years, however, I observed that many women kept recounting similar and worse stories of discrimination while looking for a house. Mumbai as a leading metro and financial capital of India, often considered as a benchmark of freedom for women, also became a case in point. Bachelor Girls takes a look at single, independent women in an urban scenario and questions the outlook of our society towards them.
The problems faced by single men/women seeking accommodation isn’t new, how does ‘Bachelor Girls’ look at it from a fresh angle?
The problem may have existed for quite some time, but after researching for the film I realised that the magnitude of this issue is much more than we imagine. My interactions with older women who came to the city in the 60s didn’t reflect this kind of scale.
Men moving to different cities for work has been happening since time immemorial. Educated women migrating for work and career is a relatively recent phenomenon, more in the last decade or so. For Indian society by and large, the idea of a modern independent women is still unsettling. But the stories in my film also debunks that notion. No matter who you are, where you come from and what you do, society labels you a ‘Bachelor Girl’. The burden of a single status amplifies in case of women.
During the course of your interaction with girls, did you meet anyone who wouldn’t refuse to create a fake husband to rent a house?
Yes, such cases are common. Couples who may want to live-in or even friends who may want to share an apartment, often take refuge in such ‘untruths’. As a society we uphold the idea of marriage far too much and always dislike a woman who asserts herself and wants to make a choice to remain single. Being married carries a badge of good morality and character in our country.
Do landlords really think girls are trouble makers vis-a-vis single men?
Individual landlords are interested in letting out their spaces and may be more liberal or conservative at a subjective level, but when there are housing societies, then the dominating view is biased against women. By and large people do view single women as attracting trouble. Also more than men, women tend to be an easy target for people’s judgements. They get slut shamed, enquired about parental presence, morally judged for the clothes they wear...
Our society is changing at a rampant pace, and we are living at the crossroads of many cultural intersections today. But the archaic ideas of a respectable woman continue to remain etched in the Indian subconscious. I feel women have evolved and redefined themselves at a pace that our society hasn’t. We follow slogans of women’s emancipation but there aren’t enough dialogues on what it truly means to empower her. Denying her a space to live alone is not progressive. Denying her a choice to remain single, is denying empowerment.
