Profile
My practise based PhD research engages with participatory, experimental and multi sensorial filmmaking techniques to investigate the shared experiences of trauma and its effects on women’s bodies among upper caste, middle class women in India. As a form of decolonial filmmaking, it aims to be collaborative, where participants co-create the film by sharing and documenting their own stories of trauma through audio-visual tools. The research engages on themes, questions, and ethics of decoloniality as a praxis to understand what it means to tell or represent trauma stories of the ‘self.’ This research is an interdisciplinary research drawing from several fields including film studies, gender studies, critical caste studies, medical anthropology, disability studies, participatory research and critical pedagogy. My research supervisor: Dr Kiki Yu Tianqi and Dr Libby Saxton
I work as a freelance documentary filmmaker, interdisciplinary researcher and grassroots facilitator with a focus on community media, access to health, gender justice , anti-caste movements, and food sovereignty in India. I believes in the power of media for social transformation and justice. Over the last ten years, I have worked as a lecturer teaching documentary filmmaking; Outreach Director with Good Pitch Local Deccan and Climate Story Labs South Asia; Program coordinator at Yakshi; and Research Fellow working on Rural Transformation Fellowship with Tata Institute of Social Science. I volunteered as a coproducer member with Food Sovereignty Alliance-India. I have also facilitated various workshops on digital storytelling and participatory documentary filmmaking for various activists and youth leaders from rural India. I hold an MA in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai, India and MA in Filmmaking (Screen Documentary) from Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.
I’m also a passionate ornithologist and wildlife photographer, given a chance, would spend my early mornings and evenings walking with my camera around lakes and forests. You can follow some of the photos on my Instagram
Some of my films: https://vimeo.com/user79021245