Roopa Rao

Last updated

Roopa Rao
Roopa Rao.jpg
Born
Education Asian Academy of Film & Television
OccupationFilmmaker
Known for The Other Love Story
Gantumoote

Roopa Rao (born May 18) is an independent Indian film-maker from Bangalore. She is the writer and director of India's first same-sex love story web series, The Other Love Story (2016). Rao is also known for directing critically acclaimed award winning Kannada film Gantumoote (2019).

Contents

Early life

Rao completed Masters in Commerce with Personnel Management as a specialization and discontinued Masters in Finance. For a span of six Years, she worked at Infosys. [1] Later, with a persistent desire to make movies, she quit her job to pursue film making. She completed a course in film direction and production from Asian Academy of Film and Television, Delhi. After this, she moved to London, UK to assist a documentary filmmaker. [2]

Career

She returned to India, where she made documentaries and short films in order to improvise her craft. After co-directing Vishnuvardhana , a Kannada feature film and Kurai Ondrum Illai, an independent Tamil feature film, she began to work on her first big scale venture, The Other Love Story . [1]

Being a writer at heart from her early teens, she had written the story of two young women falling in love during her college days but never took it further due to its unconventional story-line. [3]

Later, in 2015, she decided to work on it herself. Since the central theme of the story is a taboo topic in India, she had difficulties finding producers for her project and turned to Wishberry, a crowd funding platform to raise an amount of Rs 4 lakh.

The Other Love Story , a love story between two young girls, came on air on 27 August 2016. The first season consists 12 episodes. Set in the late 1990s/early 2000s of Bangalore, The Other Love Story , starring Spoorthi Gumaste and Shweta Gupta, explored the journey of two young women in love. [4]

Rao has won "Best Director" award at NYC Web Fest 2016 and "Best Story" award at TO Web Fest 2017. The Other Love Story has a total of 3 wins and 7 nominations from various National and International Film Festivals. [5]

After The Other Love Story, in 2017 Rao wrote and directed BFF (Breath Friend Forever), a short film where a 7-year-old, after learning about trees in class, tries to understand the importance of trees. The film was an official selection in Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and got screened at Ireland National Film Body in Kids Section.

In 2018, Astu Studios released a travel short film Love Leh’tter starring Roopa Rao, written and directed by Surya Vasishta. [6] Rao co-founded an independent production house, Ameyukti Studios, with a friend in 2018.

In 2019, Rao's first feature film, Gantumoote was up for a world premiere at New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) where it won the "Best Screenplay" award. [7] An intense coming of age, high school drama set in Bangalore in the 1990s, it's a relatable story of a sixteen-year-old girl and her subtle journey from the life that she thinks exists just like in the movies to the actual life that unravels before her. [8] [9] [10]

In 2024, she is right now getting ready for the release of Kenda (Ember), a film directed by her long-time associate Sahadev Kelvadi. They are producing the movie together, under the banner Ameyukti Studios. [11] The movie was written and directed by Sahadev, and it is Roopa's third project as producer. [12]

Filmography

YearFilmDirectorWriterProducerLanguage(s)Notes
2009Let LiveYesYesYesEnglish- HindiShort Documentary; Also Editor
2011Hot SeatYesYesNoKannadaShort Film
2014The Night of all NightsNoNoLine ProducerGermanDocumentary Feature length
2015The Century Of WomenNoNoLine ProducerGermanDocumentary Feature length
2016 The 'Other' Love Story YesYesYesEnglish
Hindi
Kannada
Web series
2017BFF (Breath Friend Forever)YesYesYesEnglishShort Film
2018Love Leh'tterNoNoNoKannadaShort Film; Actor
2019 Gantumoote YesYesYesKannadaDebut feature film
2020Silent Passage (Pandemic Tales)YesYesNoEnglishShort Film
2020Year of Silence (for Arte TV)NoNoLine ProducerGerman
English
Television Series
2021Naked (For Arte TV Series)NoNoLine ProducerGerman
English
Television Series
2024 Kenda NoNoYesKannadaFeature Film
2024Coromandel Coast (For Arte TV Series)YesYesLine ProducerGerman
English
Television Series
In Post Production
2024AsminYesYesYesKannada
English
Mini-Feature Film
In Post Production
As Associated Director

Awards

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramya Krishnan</span> Indian actress

Ramya Krishnan, also credited as Ramya Krishna, is an Indian actress. She has appeared in five languages: Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi. Ramya has won four Filmfare Awards, three Andhra Pradesh state Nandi Awards, and a Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roopa Ganguly</span> Indian actress and politician (born 1963)

Roopa Ganguly is an Indian actress, playback singer and politician. She is best known for her portrayal of Draupadi in B R Chopra's hit television series Mahabharat. Often promoted as the Tollywood's answer to Bollywood's Shabana Azmi, she is known for her versatility and accent adaptation. She has worked with directors such as Mrinal Sen, Aparna Sen, Goutam Ghose and Rituparno Ghosh. She is a trained Rabindra Sangeet vocalist and a classical dancer. She received several awards including a National Award and two BFJA Awards. In October 2016, she was nominated as a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, by the President of India. She served as the President of BJP Mahila Morcha in West Bengal. She served as the General Secretary and the Vice-President for the West Bengal Motion Picture Artistes' Forum, a body representing cine artistes. Her films have commulatively grossed more than US$100 million worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aindrita Ray</span> Indian actress

Aindrita Ray is an Indian actress who primarily appears in Kannada films. Ray has established herself as one of the leading actresses in Kannada cinema and is a recipient of two South Indian International Movie Awards, along with nominations for five Filmfare Awards South.

Radhika Pandit is an Indian actress who is primarily known for her work in Kannada films. Considered as one of the most popular and highest-paid Kannada actress, Pandit is a recipient of several accolades including three Filmfare Awards South, one Karnataka State Film Award and one South Indian International Movie Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kriti Kharbanda</span> Indian actress (born 1990)

Kriti Kharbanda is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Kannada, Hindi and Telugu language films. Kharbanda is a recipient of several accolades including a South Indian International Movie Award and nominations for two Filmfare Awards South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">B. V. Nandini Reddy</span> Indian film director

B. V. Nandini Reddy is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Telugu cinema and television. She debuted with 2011 Telugu film, Ala Modalaindi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Indian International Movie Awards</span>

South Indian International Movie Awards, also known as the SIIMA Awards, rewards the artistic and technical achievements of the South Indian film industry. It was launched in 2012 by Vishnu Vardhan Induri and Brinda Prasad Adusimilli to appreciate and honour film makers from across the South Indian film industries: Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, Kannada cinema, and Malayalam cinema, and provide a platform to promote South Indian films in international markets.

Anuradha Bhat is an Indian playback singer who predominantly works in Kannada language films. She has sung over 100 songs for feature films and also sung in various private musical albums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rakshit Shetty</span> Indian actor and filmmaker

Rakshit Shetty is an Indian actor and filmmaker working predominantly in Kannada cinema. He is the recipient of one National Film Award, two Filmfare Awards South, two Karnataka State Film Awards and five SIIMA Awards. He debuted with the film Namm Areal Ond Dina (2010) and got his breakthrough with Simple Agi Ondh Love Story and further shot to fame with the cult Blockbuster Ulidavaru Kandanthe (2014) and further established himself as a lead actor in Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu (2015), Kirik Party (2016), Avane Srimannarayana (2019), 777 Charlie (2021), and Sapta Saagaradaache Ello – Side A (2023), with 777 Charlie becoming the highest-grossing film of his career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachita Ram</span> Indian actress

Rachita Ram is an Indian actress who primarily works in Kannada films. Rachita is a recipient of various accolades including one Filmfare Award South and three South Indian International Movie Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shanvi Srivastava</span> Indian actress

Shanvi Srivastava is an Indian actress and model who works primarily in Kannada and Telugu films. Srivastava has won the SIIMA Critics Award for Best Actress – Kannada for Masterpiece (2015) and SIIMA Award for Best Actress – Kannada for Tarak (2017), being the only Kannada actress to win both these awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sruthi Hariharan</span> Indian actress

Sruthi Hariharan is an Indian actress and producer who primarily appears in Kannada language films. Sruthi is a recipient of a National Film Award, three Filmfare Awards South and one Karnataka State Film Awards.

Gitanjali Rao is an Indian theatre actress, animator and film maker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kabir Rafi</span> Indian film score composer and musician

Kabir Rafi is an Indian music composer, playback singer, independent pop artist, and background score artist. He made his full-fledged music direction debut with his first multilingual feature film in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada & Malayalam is #PK, Released in Aug 2022 and made his first Kannada commercial debut with Sugar Factory released in Nov 2023. before that he did his 1st Big banner web series like Mana Mugguri Love Story under producer Swapna Dutt banner swapna cinema who made movies like Kalki 2898 AD, sita ramam, Mahanati. then he did Mrs Subbalaxmi under Manchu Lakshmi banner manchu telefilms & Zee5. previously he has worked predominantly for 200 plus digital short films, independent films & mini movies from 2015 to present in English, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Silent films and other foreign languages which accumulated lot of awards and recognition. Presently he is working on 1 Kannada & 3 Telugu features movies to be released in 2024 - 2025.

Hemanth M. Rao is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Kannada cinema. He rose to fame following the success of his directorial debut Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu (2016).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charan Raj (composer)</span> Indian music composer and singer

Charan Raj is an Indian composer and singer known for his work in Kannada cinema. For his work in Jeerjimbe (2016), he was awarded the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Music Director.

<i>Ondu Motteya Kathe</i> 2017 Kannada film directed by Raj B. Shetty

Ondu Motteya Kathe is a 2017 Kannada-language romantic comedy film written and directed by debutant Raj B. Shetty who also appears in the lead role, along with Usha Bhandary, Shailashree, Prakash Tuminadu, Amrutha Naik, Shreya Anchan, Vj Vineeth, Rahul Amin, Deepak Rai Panaje and Ramdas playing supporting roles. The movie was released on 7 July 2017 to positive reviews. The Hindu called it the "Kannada film of the year". The film won the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Kannada. The budget of the film was estimated to be at 30 lakhs INR and the movie was a commercial success by collecting 2.5 crores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashika Ranganath</span> Indian actress (born 1996)

Ashika Ranganath is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Kannada films. She made her acting debut with the Kannada film Crazy Boy (2016). Ashika received SIIMA Award for Best Actress – Kannada nomination for Raambo 2, Raymo and Madhagaja, winning for the lattermost.

<i>Gantumoote</i> 2019 Kannada film

Gantumoote (transl. Baggage) is a 2019 Indian Kannada language coming of age drama film written and directed by Roopa Rao and produced by Rao and Sahadev Kelvadi. Having previously directed short films and web series', this is Rao's debut feature film. Set in the 90s in Bangalore, this film follows the life of Meera, a high school teenager and her first tryst with love and the story that ensues. It had its world premiere in New York Indian Film Festival on May 11, 2019, and later released in India on October 18, 2019, and in USA on November 8, 2019.

Kenda is a 2024 Indian Kannada language crime, thriller film, written and directed by Sahadev Kelvadi. It is produced by Sahadev Kelvadi and Roopa Rao. Also co-produced by KillJoy films, an Indo-German co production.

References

  1. 1 2 "Roopa Rao". LinkedIn.[ better source needed ]
  2. "Redefining love". theweek.in. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  3. "Bengaluru-made lesbian web series gets highest nominations at NYC Web Fest". Times of India. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
  4. Finger, The Ladies (5 September 2016). "'How many sex scenes does it have?'". Newslaundry. Retrieved 25 July 2024.
  5. "Roopa Rao Awards". IMDb.[ unreliable source? ]
  6. "Love Leh'tter". Astu Studios.
  7. "Raghavendra Chitravani Awards Archives". Cini Suddi. 10 January 2024. Retrieved 25 July 2024.
  8. "Critics' Choice Film Awards 2020: Complete nominations list". The Indian Express. 2 March 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2024.
  9. upmyb. "SIIMA | South India International Movie Awards". siima.upmyb.com. Retrieved 25 July 2024.
  10. "The Silver Screen Always Seemed More Real To Me: Roopa Rao". She the People. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  11. M.V, Vivek (20 July 2024). "Roopa Rao on producing 'Kenda': The film is a lovely political satire and a relatable drama". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 25 July 2024.
  12. Anandraj, Shilpa (21 May 2024). "Roopa Rao on Sahadev Kelvadi winning the Dada Saheb Phalke Best Director Award for the Kannada film Kenda: 'I am thrilled about the win'". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 25 July 2024.
  13. Patil, Rashmi (26 June 2019). "Why Kannada film Gantumoote should be on your must-watch list". EdexLive. Retrieved 25 July 2024.