Female makeup artists in India are finally able to work in the movie industry after the Supreme Court lifted a ban on the practice Monday.
Previously, female makeup artists could only work in Bollywood, the Mumbai Hindi film industry that produces almost 1,500 films annually, as hairdressers, The Associated Press reported. The ban was unofficial and put in place by the Cine Costume Makeup Artists and Hair Dressers Association (CCMAA) almost six-decades-ago.
The ban was overturned after makeup artist Charu Khurana started a petition that was backed by the National Commission for Women, a state organization that protects women's rights, AP reported.
As an aspiring makeup artist Khurana got her training at the Cinema Makeup School in Los Angeles, but she couldn't get a job in Bollywood because of the CCMAA ban - even when filmmakers were interested in her resume.
"I wanted to fight back. I wanted to earn a livelihood in the field that I have been trained," Khurana said to AP. "The film fraternity knew about this unconstitutional practice for so many years, but no one resisted it."
Judge Dipak Misra, who heard the case, lifted the ban allowing a qualified woman to become a makeup artist in Bollywood.
"We are in 2014, not in 1935. Such things cannot continue even for a day," Judge Misra said in court.
