Women Beyond Bollywood

Three generations of women discuss how female directors in India are changing stereotypical, often misogynistic, narrative tropes in Bollywood by exploring subjects that were previously considered taboo from a fresh & nuanced perspective. 

The film is directed by Rahila Bootwala who traces the resistance led by women filmmakers in India, weaving in her own tale of ambiguous affection for the Bollywood films of her youth. 

Rahila Bootwala is a Montreal-based film producer, director. She got into the world of cinema in 1994, as a production accountant in France on a Merchant Ivory Productions feature film “Jefferson in Paris”. This entry into the business of film making launched her on a 12-year long journey within the company that had its works based on great novels of world literature. She worked on international co-productions in different capacities as an associate, executive and finally into a film producer. 

She developed skills to make film within budgets and that became her forte. Rahila moved to Montréal in 2007 to start her own independent company. She founded CineVedas, developing several projects and collaborating on several international co-productions in Canada and in France, like Switch, “Le Bonheur de Pierre” and “Le Retour du fils”. Her most recent project is the well acclaimed documentary Women Beyond Bollywood, which she has both produced and directed. The documentary has been shown at various film festivals: Tasveer in Seattle, Chicago Asian International Film festival, Melbourne Asian Film Festival, Festival du Film au Feminin etc.