Seven minutes, one milestone: ‘Malini’ marks directorial push for women in film

Hyderabad: A seven-minute Telugu short film is making waves for what happened off camera. Malini, now streaming on YouTube, tells a simple meet-cute story of two introverts who take their time before starting a journey of love.

The plot is straightforward. The milestone is who made it. The film is the first project from Lights, Camera, Women, a Hyderabad-based open networking forum for women aspiring to enter the film industry. The collective has more than 250 members in Hyderabad, with others in Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune.

Lights, Camera, Women was founded by Navya Nagesh, who worked as associate director on Telugu films Ghaati and Satyabhama. The group aims to connect women to training, crews, and opportunities across departments, from writing and direction to cinematography and post-production.

With Malini, the forum steps from networking into production, signaling a push to get more women behind the camera in Telugu cinema and beyond.