Sabrina Dhawan

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Sabrina Dhawan
BornSabrina Dhawan
London, England
SubjectIndian family life, women screenwriters, Indian film
Years active2000–present
Spouse
Steve Cohen
​
(m. 2006⁠–⁠2012)​

Sabrina Dhawan is an Indian screenwriter and producer, born in England and raised in Delhi, India.

Contents

Dhawan is a Professor and the area head of screenwriting at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She has been commissioned to write for many large companies including Disney, HBO, ABC Family and 20th Century Fox. [1] She has taught at filmmaking labs all over the world.

Dhawan is most well known for her writing credits on various feature-length films, as well as some producing and directing work on her own independent short films. She works a great deal within Indian and Bollywood cinema. Monsoon Wedding , a 2001 film directed by Mira Nair, is one of her earliest and most well known works, launching her screenwriting career.

Dhawan has a brief acting cameo in Monsoon Wedding as a wedding guest.

Early life

Dhawan was born in England and raised in Delhi. Dhawan attended both the Convent of Jesus and Mary as well as Delhi Public School for her elementary education. She then went on to Hindu College to obtain her Bachelor of Arts and to Leicester University, U.K. for a Masters of Arts in Communications Research. [2] Dhawan then moved to New York City, where she graduated from Columbia University's Graduate Film Program in 2001 with a Masters of Fine Arts in Film. [3]

Her student short film, (Saanjh) As Night Falls, which she made during the last years of her MFA, has been successful since its release in 2000.

Career

Graduating from Columbia in 2001, the same year as the release of Monsoon Wedding , Dhawan's career was almost immediate. In fact, Dhawan wrote the first draft of the screenplay while she was still in school - it only took her about a week. [4] Fusing Hindi, Punjabi, and English, Dhawan wrote the multi-lingual script for Monsoon Wedding . [5] The film was premiered in the Marché du Film section of the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for various awards, including a Golden Globe.

After their pairing on Monsoon Wedding , Dhawan and Nair formed a brief partnership in which Dhawan worked as Nair's assistant at Columbia sometime in the early 2000s. [6] She also wrote the segment "India" (directed by Nair) in 11'09"01 September 11 , a series of short films for Canal Plus in 2002. [7]

Dhawan's short film (Saanjh) As Night Falls was awarded the Best of the Festival at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films. It also received the Audience Award at Angelus Awards; and was voted "Most Original Film," by New Line Cinema at the Polo Ralph Lauren New Works Festival in 2000. [3]

In 2009, Dhawan acted as co-producer for the first three episodes of a TV Series titled Bollywood Hero .[ citation needed ]

In 2016, Dhawan co-wrote the film Rangoon, with Vishal Bharadwaj and Matthew Robbins.[ citation needed ]

Dhawan worked with Mira Nair to create a stage adaptation of Monsoon Wedding which ran at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in California in 2017. [8]

Personal life

In 2006, Dhawan married Steve Cohen, who wrote the screenplay for The Bachelor (1999) starring Chris O'Donnell and Renée Zellweger. Cohen died on 29 September 2012. [9]

As of 2016 Dhawan was living in New York City with their son, Kabir. [1]

Filmography

YearFilmRoleGenre
2000(Saanjh) As Night FallsWriter/DirectorFiction Short
2001 Monsoon Wedding WriterFiction (Film)
2002 11'09"01 September 11 ("India")WriterFiction Short
2003 Cosmopolitan WriterFiction (TV)
2004Independent LensWriter (2 episodes)TV documentary
2009 Kaminey WriterFiction (Film)
2010 Ishqiya WriterFiction (Film)
2011Bollywood: The Greatest Love Story Ever ToldWriterDocumentary
2013 Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola Script ConsultantFiction
2016 Rangoon WriterFiction (Film)

Awards and nominations

YearFestival/InstitutionAwardFilmResult
2000 Palm Spring International Festival of Short Films Best of the Festival(Saanjh) As Night FallsWon
2001 Venice Film Festival Golden Lion Monsoon Wedding Won
2002 Venice Film Festival Best Short Film 11'09"01 September 11 Won
2002 Venice Film Festival UNESCO Award 11'09"01 September 11 Won
2002 Zee Cine Awards Special Award for International Cinema Monsoon Wedding Won
2002 Golden Globe Best Foreign Language Film Monsoon Wedding Nominated
2002 BAFTA Awards Best Film Not in the English Language Monsoon Wedding Nominated
2002Awards Circuit Community AwardsBest Foreign Language Film Monsoon Wedding Nominated
2002 British Independent Film Awards Best Foreign Independent Film - Foreign Language Monsoon Wedding Won
2003 Golden Satellite Awards Best Motion Picture, Foreign Language Monsoon Wedding Nominated
2003 César Awards (France)Best European Union Film 11'09"01 September 11 Nominated
2003 National Board of Review (US)Freedom of Expression Award 11'09"01 September 11 Won
2004Director's View Film FestivalFeature DocumentaryIndependent Lens [10] Won
2004 San Diego Film Festival Best Short FilmIndependent LensWon
2004Toronto ReelWorld Film FestivalBest International Short FilmIndependent LensWon
2010 Filmfare Awards Best Film Kaminey Nominated
2010 International Indian Film Academy Awards Best Picture Kaminey Nominated
2011 International Indian Film Academy Awards Best Screenplay Ishqiya Nominated
2011 International Indian Film Academy Awards Best Dialogue Ishqiya Won

References

  1. 1 2 "Sabrina Dhawan". tisch.nyu.edu. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  2. ↑ Dhawan, S. (2016, March). Getting to Know Sabrina Dhawan [E-mail interview].
  3. 1 2 "Sabrina Dhawan". arts.columbia.edu. Archived from the original on 10 March 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  4. ↑ Muir, John Kenneth (2006). Mercy in her eyes: the films of Mira Nair. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 166–7.
  5. ↑ Sen, Atreyee and Neha Raheja Thakker (April 2011). "Prostitution, pee-ing, percussion, and possibilities: Contemporary women documentary film-makers and the city in South Asia". South Asian Popular Culture. 9: 29–42. doi:10.1080/14746689.2011.553886. S2CID   13290707.
  6. ↑ Boltin, Kylie (2002). "Mira Nair's New Film Monsoon Wedding: A Discussion Of". Metro.
  7. ↑ "Sabrina Dhawan". The Hindu. 2 December 2013. ISSN   0971-751X. Archived from the original on 16 December 2013. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  8. ↑ Weinert-Kendt, Rob (3 May 2017). "'Monsoon Wedding' Lifted Moods Onscreen. How About Onstage?". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  9. ↑ "Steven L. Cohen's Obituary on Rochester Democrat And Chronicle". Rochester Democrat And Chronicle. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  10. ↑ Independent Lens, 9 August 1999, retrieved 30 March 2016
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