Top female directors in Sandalwood

The film industry has been mostly dominated by men. But, the involvement of women is increasing and they are taking a step forward to make their presence felt in the Kannada film industry. Here are the few women directors that turned people towards them, by making many successful movies and winning many awards.

Prema Karanth is a first woman director to make her debut in a male-oriented industry. Prema who is a theater artist started her career in cinema as a costume designer and later went on to become an art director. Prema made her debut as a director in 1983 from the movie ‘Phaniyamma’ based on the novel written by M.K Indira. This movie talks about the problems faced by the widows in the society.

Kavitha Lankesh is one of the best directors in Sandalwood, she is not only a director but also a screenwriter and lyricist. Kavitha started her career as a documentary director and made her big screen debut in 1999 from a feature movie ‘Deveeri’. Kavitha has directed more than 50 documentary movies and produced them. Kavitha Lankesh has directed many great movies like 'Alemaari', 'Bimba', Avva and other movies. Kavitha also revived the great TV series 'Malgudi Days' in 2006.

Vijayalakshmi is a successful actress and director in Kannada film industry. Even though she made very few movies in Kannada but those movies stuck in the minds of the audience. Vijayalakshmi Singh is the sister of director S.V Rajendra Singh Babu. Vijayalakshmi chose to start her direction career by remaking Hindi movie ‘Baghban’ in Kannada as ‘Ee Bhandana’ which became a super hit movie. In 2013 she directed another movie ‘Sweety Nanna Jodi’ which was also a successful movie.

Suman Kittur is a renowned director in Kannada film industry who has directed movies like 'Slam Bala', 'Kallara Santhe', 'Edegarike', and 'Kiragoorina Gayyaligalu'. After completing her graduation, she started assisting under director Agni Shridhar. Suman is a daring woman, she picked anti-social elements in the society to make movies on and made movies on underworld which increased her presence in Sandalwood. Her movies have won many awards. She made her debut as assistant director for the movie ‘Aa Dinagalu’ and made her first directorial movie ‘Slum Bala’ in 2008.

Roopa Iyer is a multi-talented woman in Kannada film industry. She is a director, actor, dancer, model, businessman, and Philosopher. Roopa Iyer who is a renowned dancer and who won many hearts and she made her directorial debut from the movie ‘Mukthaputa’ about a child suffering from HIV/AIDS, and later in 2013 she made another bilingual movie ‘Chandra’ which became a commercial hit.