Breaking Through a Male-Dominated Industry
Photo from https://www.thebetterindia.com/312877/international-award-winning-animator-charuvi-agarwal-fought-sexism-to-work/
Indian painter, sculptor, animator, filmmaker, and visual artist Charuvi Agrawal born in 1983 in Delhi, has gained recognition worldwide due to excelling in a male-dominated industry of filmmaking: particularly, animation.
Charuvi has always been encouraged by her parents to “try out different art forms and creativity” from a young age. She mentioned in an interview, “Even in school, I was pushed by my parents to participate in competitions related to art and craft. I was pretty sure art was going to be the way forward for me from a very young age.” Though, they “did not consider it to be a viable career option” and were “skeptical when I [Charuvi] decided to go to Delhi University and do graduation in Fine Arts,” she says.
She established Charuvi Design Labs in 2009 with an entrepreneurial mindset and a creative approach to produce large-scale artistic projects as well as interactive innovative media installations, applications, and games. The young artist has gained recognition throughout Asia for her 3D stereoscopic film Shrihanuman Chalisa, which is known for its captivating metaphors. She has spoken at events hosted by Google, Siggraph Computer Animation Festival in California, and India Design Forum. She stated how “most importantly, with my company, I want to nurture talent irrespective of gender. There are a lot of biases that I have faced, and I can only try to make it better. We also want to engage young talent in the industry,” challenging the stereotypes and bias that may exist in the industry, aiming to increase overall positive trend towards more equal gender representation uniformly across all films.
She worked in Canada on a variety of projects for the NFB and other clients before starting CDL (Charuvi Design Labs). Siggraph Computer Animation Festival (Vancouver, Los Angeles), Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (Germany), Taiwan International Children's TV & Film Festival, 3rd Beijing International Animation Festival, and Santa Fe Film Festival are just a few of the prestigious film festivals where her work has been exhibited. [Find out more about her artworks here
Without being overly prescriptive, it is important that gender be accurately portrayed in films since they might include subliminal messages that could affect how viewers perceive others and even themselves. By allowing the audience (particularly children) see their gender expressed through a variety of roles, it inhibits them from placing unrealistic restrictions on themselves and motivates them to reach their full potential.
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