Writing Her Own Script: Sumukhi Suresh

Sumukhi Suresh made sure she is the heroine of her story, and now she is on a mission to help other women take charge of their narrative

- Ananya Ghosh

Even a few years back, Sumukhi Suresh had an uncomfortable relationship with the term 'female comic'. So, when she started her own company with the aim to usher in women-centric content, I was intrigued.

"I was the person who started on being in team A, and then switched to team B. But I understand the weariness that comes with being called a 'woman' artist," she admits.

Today, instead of vehemently shunning the tag, she has a more evolved understanding. "I have an issue where women are put in a separate box and made to compete with one another. I don't want to be the best among women'; I want to be the best. There is this idea that women don't support women; that they are forever fighting among themselves. I don't think those are gender-specific traits. Also, hum saath mein bhi toh best ho sakte hain."

But Sumukhi doesn't mind being called a female comic. "If I am called a 'female' comic and that tag gets me more women in the audience, I don't mind it. If that inspires more women to do this, I don't mind it at all. It is a very small price to pay," she explains.

Sumukhi has decided to make her newly-launched content platform, Motormouth, a company dedicated to creating stories centering female characters, simply because she wanted to play to her strengths. "I can write stories about men also if I am asked to. But this is what I prefer. People often say that a story is a story, why do you need a platform to tell stories only about women? The very fact that this is still a conversation topic is proof that there is a need for this. It is not that we are having 200 stories that are led by women."