| Paromita Vohra | |
| Nationality: | Indian |
| Occupation: | Filmmaker and writer |
| Known For: | Making documentaries |
| Notable Works: | Khamosh Pani, Unlimited Girls, Q2P |
| Relatives: | Anil Biswas (grandfather) Parul Ghosh (great-aunt) |
Paromita Vohra is an Indian filmmaker and writer. She is known for her documentaries on subjects such as urban life, desire, pop culture and gender.[1] She has also written the screenplay of the award-winning feature film Khamosh Pani.[2] Her film production company Parodevi Pictures[3] is based in Mumbai. She writes a column Paro-normal Activity for the Sunday Mid-day[4] and also wrote a weekly column for Mumbai Mirror.[5]
Vohra lives in Mumbai.[6] She is the daughter of Shikha Vohra,[7] who in turn was the daughter of the music composer Anil Biswas by his first wife Ashalata Biswas, an actress who worked in Hindi cinema during the 1930s and 1940.[8] Vohra studied mass communication in Miranda House at the University of Delhi (1986 – 1989).[9]
Vohra co-founded Agents of Ishq, an online platform for positively representing sex in India through various media forms.[10] She is also its current creative director.[11] Agents of Ishq has multimedia content in English and Hindi[10] and helps readers access comprehensive sexuality education, focusing on the three aspects of sex education, sexual experience and sexual etiquette.[12] Vohra has indicated that the platform should talk about "desire, freedom, gender, equality, and choice".[13] and a place where young Indians can access the right information about sex.[12]
In its 7 years of existence, Agents of Ishq has reached over 24 million people online and has been showcased as one of 10 global sexuality projects of excellence by UNESCO
In her three-decade career, she has worked as a director, writer, actor, installation artist, curator, actor and a teacher, repeatedly breaking new ground.
Vohra is among the few filmmakers who opened up new languages of documentary filmmaking, mixing fiction and non-fiction to create a uniquely personal and playful form. The hallmark of her work is its accessible, eclectic, humorous treatment of complex conceptual subjects – from public toilets to food politics, from feminism to Shahrukh Khan - while always breaking new ground both intellectually and artistically.
In 2013, Time Out Mumbai listed her as one of ten people who have changed the way we look at film in India. Her films have been internationally broadcast and released, and her work has been exhibited at the Tate Modern, The Wellcome Trust Gallery, the National Gallery of Modern Art, and the CSMVS Museum (previously Prince of Wales), Mumbai.
She has also acted as ‘Aunty 303’ in the Channel V promos of the same name and had a cameo in the film English, August.
| Year | Title | Language(s) | Director | Producer | Screenplay | Other | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Annapurna: Goddess of Food | English | |||||
| 1999 | A Woman's Place | English | |||||
| 2000 | A Short Film about Time | English | |||||
| 2002 | Unlimited Girls | English | Actor | ||||
| 2004 | Work In Progress | English | |||||
| 2004 | Cosmopolis: Two Tales of a City | English | |||||
| 2005 | Where's Sandra? | English | |||||
| 2006 | Q2P | English | |||||
| 2008 | Morality TV and the Loving Jehad - Ek Manohar Kahani | Hindi, English | |||||
| 2012 | Partners in Crime | English | |||||
| 2013 | Connected Hum Tum, Season 1 | Hindi, English | Series Director |
| Year | Title | Language(s) | Producer | Screenplay | Dialogues | Other | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Skin Deep | Multilingual | |||||
| 2002 | A Few Things I Know About Her | English, Hindi, Rajasthani | |||||
| 2003 | Khamosh Pani/Silent Waters | Punjabi | |||||
| 2004 | If You Pause - in a Museum of Craft | English, Hindi, Rajasthani | |||||
| 2005 | The House on Gulmohar avenue | English, Hindi | Script Consultant |
She was a writer for 3 Films on Ethnic Conflict which were a collection of three short fiction films around the theme of ethnic conflict to be used as discussion tools for the People’s Decade of Human Rights Education, If You Pause: In a Museum of Craft directed by Sameera Jain, Skin Deep directed by Reena Mohan, Bollywood Inc produced by UTV for BBC, Videocon Flashback produced by Channel V and The Stuntment of Bollywood for National Geographic.
She was also a script consultant for The House on Gulmohar Avenue directed by Samina Mishra and Toda Stories directed by Anjali Punjabi.
| 2016 | Main aur Meri Body | Hindi, English | ||||
| 2016 | The Amorous Adventures of Shakku and Megha in the Valley of Consent | Marathi, English | Sangeet Bari | |||
| 2018 | Love in the Garden of Consent | Hindi, English | Co-produced by Parodevi Pictures and Nirantar | Tinder | ||
| 2020 | Aika to the Baika | Marathi, English | Co-produced by Parodevi Pictures and Majlis Legal Centre | |||
| 2021 |
| Hindi, English | Co-produced by Parodevi Pictures and Oxfam India |
Vohra has an extensive body of fiction and non-fiction writings published in academic journals such as India Quarterly, BioScope and Jump Cut. Some of her narrative non-fiction work includes East is East/Aar ya Paar in Cinema-City, Osmosis in Recess: The Penguin Book of Schooldays and The One Billion Rupee Home in “Bombay Meri Jaan” (Penguin).
She has also written the educational guide for the use of film as a tool for discussion and with a special focus on Law, Patriarchy and Gender to accompany the film A Woman’s Place which has been widely used internationally by at least 200 institutions.
Vohra is also an occasional contributor to Yahoo! Originals, Outlook, India Today, Time Out, Tehelka, Gallerie, Economic Times, Indian Express, Times of India, Wall Street Journal, Asian Age, Man’s World, Vogue, Elle on issues of popular culture, urban life, cinema,feminism and food.
With Ram Devineni, Vohra co-wrote Priya's Mirror, the second chapter to Priya's Shakti, a 2016 augmented reality
Along with making documentaries and writing, Vohra has also created multimedia projects such as sound installations for Project Cinema City, a 2012 exhibition on cinema, the city, and archiving contemporary culture, So Near Yet So Far,[16]which travelled to the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.
Vohra also conducts worshops on writing for film, finding your own creative approach, analyzing popular culture and gender across prestigious colleges and organisations such as NALSAR University, Indian School of Business, Video Volunteers, Open Space, Pune, Majlis, Mumbai, Delhi University, Mumbai University, IIM Bangalore, British Council, Cordoba University and J.Walter Thompson and Associates, (JWT), Delhi.
She has been an artist in residence at University of California, Santa Cruz (2023), Northwestern University (2017), University of Boulder (2017), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2015, 2016) and at the Seachange Residency in Provincetown (2007) and received grants from the Ford Foundation, Global Fund for Women, India Foundation for the Arts, PSBT, the Jan Vrijman Fund for Documentary, the Packard Foundation and the Goethe Institut among others.
| Year | Title | Awards | Contribution | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | A Few Things I Know About Her | National Award for Best Documentary and Silver Conch for Documentary at Mumbai International Film Festival, | Writer | |
| 2003 | Khamosh Pani/Silent Waters | Award for Best Screenplay, Kara Film Festival | Screenplay | |
| 2004 | Cosmopolis:Two Tales of A City | Award for Best Experimental Documentary at Digital Film Festival, | Writer, Director | |
| 2006 & 2007 | Unlimited Girls | Women’s New Award for Best Film, Women’s Film Festival in Seoul, 2006 and Aina News Award (2007) | Writer, Director | |
| 2007 | Q2P | Best Documentary Award at Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) and Best Documentary Award at Stuttgart Film Festival, | Writer, Director | |
| 2008 | Morality TV and the Loving Jehad | Best Short Documentary, IVF, Kerala | Writer, Director | |
| 2012 | Partners in Crime | Best Documentary, Ladakh Film Festival, 2012, and Special Jury Mention, SIGNS | Writer, Director | |
| 2020 | Aika to the Baika | Best campaign video, Ladli Gender and Media Awards | Director | |
| 2021 |
| Best campaign video, Ladli Gender and Media Awards | Director |
References