Nisha Pahuja Spotlights Social Issues Through Her Lens - a podcast by Ami Thakkar Raval: Podcaster and Writer
from 2023-11-23T11:00
Nisha Pahuja is a writer, an artist, and director and now an Emmy-nominated filmmaker. Her passion for social impact is marked by a quiet courage towards exploring complex social issues that often breed division through the lens of her camera. We chat about her latest award-winning documentary "To Kill a Tiger," which has won 19 awards from prestigious festivals such as TIFF, Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Canadian Screen Awards, and Doc Aviv and has names like Dev Patel and Mindy Kaling attached to it. The film earned its way on The New York Times Most Anticipated Fall Releases list and Anne Thompson at the IndieWire’s Oscar Contenders list.
I had the pleasure of moderating the premier of the film here in Dallas with some of the executive producers and was absolutely blown away by the film.
Nisha's storytelling prowess goes beyond this latest project, with notable credits like the Emmy-nominated "The World Before Her," the documentary "Bollywood Bound," and the insightful series "Diamond Road." Her work doesn't just capture stories; it sparks conversations and challenges perspectives, especially around themes of cultural evolution, the reality of stereotypical depictions, and the grip that shame has on so many of us. As an immigrant from India to Canada, Nisha's unique vantage point enriches her narratives, bridging diverse worlds with empathy and insight. Her journey is not just about making films but also the art of fostering understanding, catalyzing change, and alchemizing adversity into inspiration.
We talked about:
- How Nisha got involved with Kill A Tiger and what she feels were the hardest parts to film (4:16)
- Western and eastern societal parallels around discussing and handling sexual assault (8:10)
- Nisha’s relationship with shame and the concept of shame as a cultural inheritance (12:05)
- How Karen and her family are doing now and current projects in the works (17:20)
- What experiencing immigrating from India and growing up in Canada was like (18:50)
- Nisha’s relationship with our culture (23:50)
- The World Before Her, the initial journey to documentary making, and her perspective on representation (29:30)
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