THE NATIONAL Media Partner Supported by Tuesday, December 15, 2020 Live on YouTube 53 Foreword It gives us immense pleasure to share with you the event brochure of the 10th edition of the Laadli Media and Advertising Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2020. It was a very exciting nine months for us since we announced the call for entries in March 2020. The anxiety and excitement of receiving entries during the Covid‐19 times, the shortlisting process, the animated discussions at jury meetings and the new learning of organizing an online event. What an amazing experience it was! The icing on the cake was the very act of reading and watching diverse content and the feeling that all was not lost and that there is hope for a strong and meaningful media emerging from the current crisis. The online publications, the OTT and the Social Media platforms seem to be providing the much needed space and time to journalists and creative content producers to work on topics and themes which would perhaps not be accepted by a mainstream publication or channel. The freedom from commercial concerns seems to be liberating in a sense. Yet, on the lip side was the using of social media by organized mobs of netizens, acting as vigilantes, and trying to inluence and regulate free expression through threats and trolls. It was heartening to note that young journalists writing for regional language paper's like Gaon Connection were doing amazing and much needed ield‐based reporting. Reading about the Bhawaiyyas, sexual exploitation of women and children in tea gardens, the troubles and travails of women traficked for marriage to Haryana was enlightening. It was equally exhilarating to see the digital ads which dealt with various issues like discrimination against the dark complexioned, body shaming of women, the gender benders, etc. We were also thrilled to present the theatre award to Ms. Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal and Mr. Manjul Bhardwaj who deine theatre by its relevance to society and the Lifetime Achievement Award to Ms. Usha Khanna, the only commercially successful female music director in Bollywood. This year we have introduced three new categories of awards in electronic media ‐ a ilm released on OTT Platform, web series, and the most inspiring woman protagonist in a TV serial. Soni, Made In Heaven, and Mini from Patiala Babes, respectively, won the awards. We were also very excited to have Shri.Mr. Ravish Kumar, senior journalist, a role model and an inspiration to many young journalists as our Chief Guest, who beseeched the young journalists to keep writing sensitive stories with the hope that one day we have a media which lives up to its epithet as the fourth pillar of the society. We were happy that UNFPA had joined us again to support the awards. Its support meant a lot, as it was impossible to undertake advocacy at this scale without funding support. We need to keep engaging in more conversations, build up a pool of committed media persons and highlight the positive efforts. Each year gives us more hope that we are moving in the right direction when it comes to more inclusive and sensitive communication. Finally, a big thank you to all the media persons who sent in their entries, all the jury members who have painstakingly gone through the entries and, my team at Population First who made it possible to have the event under such dificult circumstances. We are grateful to Dolly Thakore, our go‐to resource for her consistent support and encouragement. Stay safe, stay blessed. Mr. S. V. Sista Dr. A. L. Sharada Executive Trustee Director 54 About Nlmaags The National Laadli Media and Advertising Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2020 (NLMAAGS) are the culmination of the awards given to journalists from print, electronic and web media from across India. Around 1300 entries in 13 languages were received from all over the country. 75 awards and 18 Jury citations were presented in the event conducted online for all four regions. The National Awards include some of the regional winners who were selected as deserving of a National Award by a fresh panel of distinguished jury members. National Awards cover a wider canvass include awards for gender sensitive advertisements, books, feature films, films released on OTT, web series, theatre, innovative campaigns that have attempted to break through gender biases and special awards - Lifetime achievement award, women behind the scene award etc. Music composer Usha Khanna was awarded the Laadli Lifetime Achievement Award 2020 for succeeding in a completely male dominated field of music direction in Bollywood. The Awards were supported by United Nations Population Fund. The event was held online in view of the Covid-19 pandemic and was streamed on the YouTube channel of Population First. Pluc TV was the media partner for the event. 5 National Awardees FEATURE FILM ARTICLE 15 ANUBHAV SINHA 'Article 15' follows a police investigation that commences after three teenage girls go missing from a small village. It looks closely at the intersections of caste, class, and the power dynamics at the core of the prevailing political dispensation. The connivance of police and administration in a major cover‐up exposes deep‐ rooted social hierarchies ‐ with their use of violence in general, and sexual violence against women and girls in particular, to silence voices that demand their democratic right to equality. FEATURE FILM ‑ ANIMATED BOMBAY ROSE GITANJALI RAO Bombay Rose presents a Hindu‐Muslim romance between a man negotiating his own masculinity through his love of macho Bollywood heroes, and his comeuppance at the hands of the roadside lower seller he is in love with ‐ a girl who also earns money in a way that troubles his male pride and patriarchal values. The ilm also has a tender backstory of an older romance that breaks other gendered norms. DOCUMENTARY FILM HOLY RIGHTS FARHA KHATUN The documentary 'Holy Rights' follows the journey of Saia Akhtar, a deeply religious Muslim woman from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh who joins a programme that trains women as qazis, traditionally a male preserve. The ilm documents her journey as she negotiates an uncharted territory, exploring the tensions that arise when women try to change the status quo and take control of narratives that so deeply affect their lives. FILM ON DIGITAL PLATFORM | NETFLIX SONI IVAN AYR Soni chronicles the life of police oficer Soni and her superintendent Kalpana, who deal with crimes against women in the city of Delhi. They also face the all‐ pervasive misogyny and gender bias in the system and the deep rooted patriarchal mindsets at home. The ilm is made with sensitivity, chronicling the lives of policewomen who have to ight not just the criminals but also the system to do what they are supposed to. 56 National Awardees WEB SERIES MADE IN HEAVEN ZOYA AKHTAR & REEMA KAGTI Are marriages really made in heaven? Or are they relationships of convenience, expediency, equations of political exigencies, a facade of 'normalcy' in an otherwise not so normal world? Made in Heaven explores the dynamics working behind the weddings and exposes the deep rooted patriarchy, gender prejudices and stranglehold of social norms and social practices. It's an entertaining, engaging yet thought‐provoking presentation of the institution of marriage in India. BOOK | NON‑FICTION ‑ AUTOBIOGRAPHY LISA RAY CLOSE TO THE BONE: A MEMOIR The raw honesty of Lisa's writing is what moves the readers of 'Close to the Bone'. Her frankness in holding up and examining so many different perspectives of her own life, her incredible journey of courage, of growth, of hope, of love and spirituality makes her autobiography stand apart from other memoirs. Lisa narrates with laser sharp and extremely entertaining writing, her journey of conquering the odds ‐ from misogyny to cancer, and what it means to be a woman striving for more in today's world. BOOK | NON‑FICTION ‑ SPORTS / ADVENTURE SUPRITA DAS FREE HIT 'Free Hit' dives deep into the lives of a spirited bunch of women who fought hard for their right to play, overcame sponsorship challenges, corrected gender–based pay gaps, and tackled the sheer indifferences of cricket administrators along the way. Her sense of history, her eye for details and skill with language in crafting a book on women's cricket in India is laudable. BOOK | FICTION MANREET SODHI SOMESHWAR THE RADIANCE OF A THOUSAND SUNS Manreet Sodhi Someshwar, sensitively and skilfully, weaves diverse threads of narratives ‐ across years, countries, and continents; giving voice to the women whose stories most often remain silent, or who are forcefully silenced ‐ in particular those women who went through unbelievable horrors during the 1947 Partition and again during the 1984 anti‐Sikh riots. These are hard hitting stories which give voice to the experiences of women who are often not heard in His‐story. 57 National Awardees THEATRE POOR BOX PRODUCTIONS THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES Eve Ensler's 'The Vagina Monologues' is a revolutionary play that introduces women around the world to their own bodies, gives them agency and the courage to speak out about the insecurities, ignominies and injustices they suffer. Mahabanoo Mody‐Kotwal's Poor Box Productions has played an important role in making this seminal work accessible to Indian audiences through 1000 performances over 17 years. It has made consistent efforts to promote conversations about women, their bodies and their sexuality through the play. THEATRE MANJUL BHARDWAJ ‑ EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE FOUNDATION Experimental Theatre Foundation through its Theatre of Relevance philosophy believes that theatre has a social responsibility to relect social reality, engage people in the process of change and build a better world that is based on human rights. The processes of participation and change that are promoted through people centric theatre make the Experimental Theatre Foundation and Manjul Bhardwaj extraordinary.