Archana Ghangrekar cinematarch@gmail.com
Archana graduated as a bright computer engineer from a prestigious engineering college in Mumbai. During the course of 4 years of undergrad studies, she joined a film society and a short filmmakers’ club, along with her couple of close friends. That one decision of registering at a film society changed the course of her life. Along the way, she developed a strong passion for story telling which led her to leave an extremely lucrative career in the field of computer engineering and a highly paid job, to pursue filmmaking.
She studied and and evolved as a visual story teller, in the ripe atmosphere of FTII, over four years. She was exposed to the best of world cinema, which reshaped her aesthetics completely. Her Diploma film “Meenalap” aka Fish musings won many accolades on International level including Grand Prix and Ritwik Ghatak golden award for best short fiction.
After passing out of FTII, in 2017, she worked with her mentor Mr. Shanker Raman and Sylvester Fonseca, as their second unit DoP on a number of projects before getting independent.
She shot All India Rank (to be released in 2023) the debut feature film by noted writer-lyricist Varun Grover, produced by Matchbox shots-slated to be released on Netflix.
She just finished shooting a series for Tiger baby films (to be announced and released late 2023), directed by Ayesha Sood.
A queer feature length she shot and was extensively involved in the production of- “Laila Manju” is currently getting incredible response at the festival circuit both on local and global levels.
She enjoys building a healthy relationship with her coworkers and bringing a positive and fresh energy to set everyday.
Her work includes
All India rank (feature length, 107 min)
Lailaa Manju (feature length, 65 min)
Flamingoes and other migratory birds tour (short, directed by Pranjal Dua)
Phir Kabhi ( short, produced by Anurag Kashyap, written and directed by Nihit Bhave)
Gupt Gyan ( short, produced by Sikhya, directed by Saqib Pandor)
The bizzare murder of Pristh Tusker (feature length, 100 min)
Faith in friction ( 7 channel video installation, in collaboration with Neha Choksi, installed in Manchester Art Gallery )
Gulabi ( short fiction, 30 min )
Doobie ( short fiction, 20 min)
Meenalap (short fiction, 27 min)
In her free time, she loves to read (current favourite “Ubhayanvayi avyay” by Chandrakant Khot), make cyanotypes and plant trees.
Archana is fluent in English, Marathi, Hindi and understands Kannada and Bangla. She is also semi fluent in Japanese.
She is based out of Mumbai and open to collaborate on projects from all over the world. Oh and she has a super extensive experience in shooting with kids and shooting guerilla style in the by lanes of Mumbai and Benaras, on more than a couple of projects!