Biography

Nishtha Jain (born 21 June 1965) is an Indian film director and producer best known for her documentaries like Gulabi Gang (2012), Lakshmi and Me Archived 7 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine (2007) and City of Photos Archived 7 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine (2004). Her films interrogate lived experience at the intersection of gender, caste and class. They explore the political in the personal and uncover the mechanisms of privilege. In addition to documentary film, she's been working across various platforms including narrative (Saboot/Proof ) and virtual reality (Submerged).

Her training began at A.J.K. Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She then worked as an editor and correspondent for video news magazines Newstrack and Eyewitness. After this, she studied at Film and Television Institute of India, specializing in film direction.

Jain has served as a juror at IDFA, ZFF, Cinéma Vérité and IDSFFK. She's given lectures and master classes at numerous universities internationally, including Stanford, NYU, Wellesley College, UCSB, Northwestern University, UT Austin, Cambridge University, University of London, St. Andrews University, Heidelberg, Danish Film School, FTII Pune, India, Satyajit Ray Film & TV Institute.

Her films have received several international awards and have been extensively shown in international film festivals, broadcast on international TV networks and regularly shown in schools and colleges in India and abroad. She's a Chicken & Egg Award winner (2020); Member of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences (AMPAS); Film Independent Global Media Maker Fellow (2019–20); and recipient of Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship (2019).