Duryodhan to the rescue of the fairer sex

mumbai: the maharashtra state commission for women has come up with a novel idea to stop derogatory portrayal of women in films, teleserials and advertisements. on march 8, the international women's day, producers and directors, whose ventures have been found to depict the fair sex in poor light, would be conferred the 'duryodhana' and 'rakshasa' awards, mscw chairperson nirmala samant prabhawalkar said.she said the commission stumbled upon the idea, akin to 'bad sex awards' given in london's literary circles every year, during a a media seminar organised in june last. "we wanted to send a message to bad film-makers and so instituted these awards," she said adding the duryodhan award, named after the villain of the epic mahabharata, would be given for films and advertisements showing women in bad taste, while rakshasa awards were meant for films propagating mindless violence. "we have set a deadline of january 15 for seeking public opinion and the award will be given every march," she added. the award would be in the form of a statuette of duryodhan and rakshasa, with a citation, giving details of why the award is being conferred upon the film-maker, she said adding "even if the awardee does not attend our function, it would be couriered to his residence". shiv sena leader pramod navalkar, known for playing a "culture cop" during his stint as cultural affairs minister however, disapproved of the idea saying "instead of such a move, the commission should take direct action like gheroaing the film-makers belittling women".