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Shashwati Talukdar is a 'creative' filmmaker and editor, of Indian origin. She has been awarded the James T. Yee Mentorship Award from Center for Asian American Media (2002) and the Project Involve Fellowship (2003) from IFP/New York. Her current work Hooch and Hamlet in Chharanagar on the denotified tribes, has won her much acclaim. Our Editor Neha Mahajan spoke to her over the phone, while she readies her next movie in Taiwan.
 Photo:P. Kerim Friedman
She grew up in the small town of Dehradun in the Indian state of Uttranchal , where television had not yet creeped in. Surrounded by nature and books, her creativity started building up. Painting, learning music, reading books and churning stories, it was at the young age of eight when children are busy playing that she wrote her first play.
Reminiscing her childhood Shashwati Talukdar, the eminent filmmaker says, “Dehradun was an idyllic place to grow up. There was no TV, and since I was a sick child, I used to read a lot. My mother is a painter so I got that side of creativity from her. My parents always encouraged me. I used to interact with people a lot and all this put together along with my college study of psychology brought me to film making, which I completed from Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi in 1990. It was only a natural digression. ”
Having come to US soon after on a scholarship, she completed a Masters of Fine Arts in film and media arts at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She then worked with Michael Moore on the BBC show, Michael Moore Live, as an assitant editor-- an experience she calls, “larger than life”. Since then Shashwati has worked with various projects for HBO, BBC, Lifetime, Sundance and Cablevision.
 Photo: P. Kerim Friedman
Talukdar’s films have made her a lauded figure in filmmaking circles. Her subjects range from cultural identity to the Bollywood underbelly. Her early films being experimental and short, including my Life as poster and Any number you want, she has explored quite a number of genres. Subjects don't bind her, they are a creative evolution which is visible in her work.
“Subjects bind you. I never went out to see or sought after a particular subject that this is what I want to do now. I don't define my subjects by genres. I wanted my freedom. Things have just found me.”
Although she is very modest in saying just that, over a dozen on her films and videos have been screened at the Margaret Mead Festival, Berlin, the Whitney Biennial, Kiasma Museum of Art in Helsinki and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.
 Photo: P. Kerim Friedman
Her independent project "Whose Children Are These", directed by Theresa Thanjan and edited by her was about the effects of September 11 on three Muslim youth and has won five awards till date. It has also been broadcast nationally on PBS. A narrative short, “Love, Mom,” starring Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins was directed by Broadway Music director Ted Sperling and edited by Talukdar. The film won the Best Director award at the Black Maria Festival.
 Photo: Nandini Sikand
Shashwati's current project, Hooch and Hamlet in Chharanagar a documentary on a denotified tribe-- The Chharas settled near Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India, were labeled criminal during the British regime. They fight each day, to live a life that is civilized by bribing the police and breaking all prejudices that have been stamped on them for ages.
“ It was during my documentary, Mahasweta Devi: Witness, Advocate, Writer, Devi, a writer and activist that explains her role as an activist on behalf of India’s tribal people and reads some of her short stories that I came to know about Chharas. This was a young group of actors who are very dynamic and intense. They performed about a court case about denotified tribes activist Budhan Sabar in West Bengal. I was highly impressed with them that even though they lived in Gujarat, they had a big vision and was performing this play on an issue in West Bengal, which was larger than their community.”
She continues,“ Dakxin Bajrange, the main playwright of this group, he got arrested on some fake charges which is very common with the Chhara community. We went to Ahmedabad in 2003 and shot over 20 hours of footage on what was happening. This was then edited into a 15 minute film Acting Like A Thief which got tremendous response. ”
 Photo:P. Kerim Friedman
The Budhan theater group has become the nexus for a movement to change attitudes both within Chharanagar and outside it . All 15 members of the group participate in three major activities – library maintenance, community sensitization and theater performance. The one-room library in Chharanagar has about 500 books and documents on literature, art, history and sociology. Daily Gujarati newspapers and a computer are also available. School and college students from Chharanagar regularly use the library as a place to meet, study and tutor one another. This way they are slowly but bringing about a change, giving their youth a chance who are so used to thinking of themselves as criminals.
By making Hooch and Hamlet in Chharanagar, she really hopes to create awareness about the plight of denotified tribes of India (over 60 million Indians) and their oppression. This is her first full length documentary, although she never considers herself to be a hard core documentary filmmaker. With over three years of shooting, she still remembers the first encounter with the Chharas, the tribe many call criminal.
“ The first time we went to Charranagar, Dr. Ganesh Devy, a very eminent figure in cultural activism in Gujrat, and founder of the Tribal Academy in Tehgadh was our guide. As soon as we entered, there was some sort of a commotion. He bundled us just then and took us out of the place. The reason I was told later was that local police had sent people to spy on what was going on and had sent some gundas to create hungama, for altercation and disturbance and would have charged us against it and taken our passports. They wanted us to bribe them, but we just did not have enough money. This was the first time we were in Charranagar, but we relied heavily and trusted the wisdom of our hosts during the shoot.”
Co-directed and produced with Kerim Friedman, the documentary's executive producer is Oscar winning editor and producer Kurt Engfehr With all the good work that Shashwati and her producer husband Kerim Friedman is doing, where does the money comes in from?
Laughs “I'd call it sweat acquity, you put in lot of hours of work and get a lot of grass root fund raising, we gathered money from our friends, and those who care for social justice. One organization even donated about $5000 that was enough for a couple of visits."
Shashwati's supporters have been some very eminent entities including, the Jerome Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
Currently in Taiwan, which is her second home apart from NYC, she is busy producing a Taiwanese film Romance Rentals, directed by Chen Ti Kuo which features about democracy movement in 1980.
For her work and future supports she constantly needs you. Visit her website and support the cause here.
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