In an unprecedented moment for documentary filmmaking and the development sector in India, ‘Mast Mahila Mandali’ (Cool Ladies Club), a film shot entirely on smartphones by ten women from Mumbai’s working-class neighbourhoods of Mumbai's M East Ward, screened to a packed house of over 1,200 people at the iconic Regal Cinema on Tuesday evening, April 28, 2026.

The screening was followed by a question and answer session with the filmmakers who reflected on the significance of watching a film from the margins take centre stage. “This film cuts between ten characters and their stories, and embraces the smartphone as an important tool for creating films. To do this with confidence, and to have the conviction to present this experimental, genre-bending film to such a large crowd, this has been our biggest achievement as filmmakers today,” said National Award winning filmmaker and faculty at the School of Media and Cultural Studies, TISS, Dr. Shilpi Gulati. She is also the co-director and editor of the film.

The event also marked a distinctive first for CORO India, the non-profit organisation that has produced the film. “We are thrilled with the support extended to the film. For us, co-creation meant building bridges with diverse stakeholders and one another. Everyone had decision-making power. We collectively reflected on what to include in the film and what not to. It signals the beginning of a shift where grassroots communities are very much the architects of their own stories,” said Supriya Jan, executive producer and Lead of CORO's Grassroots Knowledge Building Initiatives.

The film was met with an enthusiastic and deeply engaged audience, bringing together the filmmakers’ families and communities, grassroots leaders, members of the development sector and academia, alongside film reviewers, producers, critics, and directors from Mumbai’s film fraternity at Regal Cinema. “The film lives up to its name. The women I met today on the big screen are not just inspiring, but also really funny and relatable. Glad to have been able to see the film and I hope more people get to watch it,” shared a guest.

Co-created by Anjum Shaikh, Darshana Mayekar, Gauri Rane, Kavita Khomne, Nazneen Siddiqui, Rohini Kadam, Rehana Shaikh, Sheetal Navle, Kavita Ghuge, and Vaishali Mane, ‘Mast Mahila Mandali’ tells a unique tale of joy, leisure, labour, and lives of these women from the M-East ward in Mumbai. The film has been supported by the School of Media and Cultural Studies, TISS, American Jewish World Service and Atta Deep Educational Foundation.

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