When Sapna Bhavnani christened India’s first female-directors-only indie film gala Wench Film Festival, she hoped to spark a dialogue about how sexism influences our everyday language. But the hair stylist-artist-producer did not expect social media giant Instagram to be among the first to raise an objection. Over the past two days, the social media platform has restricted the activities of the film festival’s account. “Last year, Facebook had restricted my production house’s account because of the term ‘wench’. It took three months of persistent conversation with the US office to fix that. Now, I am facing the same issue with the festival’s Instagram page. We are unable to reach out to our audience because we can’t follow people back,” says Bhavnani. The film festival, partnered by mid-day, is slated to kick off on March 6.

The festival’s Instagram handle is barred from posting updates