The Female Gaze

Cinematography is Modhura Palit’s calling. The hurdles involved in making it in a male-dominated field have not dimmed her passion

- Apeksha Priyadarshini

“WHEN you control the camera, you can play God,” says Modhura Palit, one of the few women cinematographers, who work across Indian film industries. “It is a liberating experience.” Palit—known for her work in films like Amar Colony (2022), Aator (2017) and Bahadur (2023)—has had to face many challenges as one of the few women to break into a male-dominated territory. She remembers being denied a project once because they refused to arrange a washroom for her. “It is basic civic sense to provide washrooms for all crew members, not just women. But I was simply rejected for my biology. And they were unabashed about saying this to my face!” she says.

Palit was just 18 when she knew she wanted to work with cameras. A graduate of Mass Communication and Videography from St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, she recalls that when she started attending classes on how to operate cameras, the space really spoke to her. “I enjoyed the process because it was so empowering,” she says. Palit comes from a lineage of image making—both her parents are art photographers. By the time she started applying to film schools, she knew cinematography was her calling. Even though she got through both the courses on direction as well as cinematography at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata, Palit chose to go with the latter.