Nandita, Rasika to join Ava DuVernay, Salma Hayek in protest against Cannes's gender gap

Filmmaker Nandita Das and her "Manto" actor Rasika Duggal will be joining Hollywood A-listers Jane Fonda, Kirsten Stewart, Ava DuVernay and Salma Hayek to protest against the lack of female representation at the Cannes Film Festival.

The initiative has been spearheaded by French cinema gender equality movement 5050x2020.

According to Vanity Fair, the organisers' aim is to highlight the hurdles faced by women to climb the social and professional ladder in the film industry.

Total of 82 women from the world of cinema will climb the steps that lead to the festival's Theatre Debussy, pause and stand motionless and silent facing the Palais.

The number of participants is deliberate. Since the launch of the Cannes Film Festival, only 82 films directed by women have been awarded by an official selection in competition, compared to 1,645 films directed by men, a ratio of less than five percent.

The protest will be held ahead of the gala premiere of the only French woman director with a film in competition, Eva Husson, whose movie, "Girls of the Sun", is about a Kurdish female battalion.

Lea Seydoux, Marion Cotillard, Patty Jenkins and Sofia Boutella are some of the prominent names participating in the silent protest.