Mrinalini D.S

Originally from Chennai, India, I studied to be an electrical engineer and soon realized that wasn't the path for me. After a short stint as a software programmer, I sang professionally for Bollywood films, and also dabbled with composing and music production. Eventually that too got boring and I a attended a screenwriting workshop that changed my life. I went on to make short films and studied screenwriting at the New York Film Academy. My scripts have been finalists at the Sundance/Sloan Grant and Sundance/Screenwriting Lab.

My debut film ‘Notes of Silence’ premiered at the Los Angeles Women’s International Film Festival and went on to play at many more festivals. My latest short ‘Red Mondays and Turquoise Twos’ played at the UK synesthesia association’s annual conference in London this year, and is set to premiere at the Pineapple Underground Film Festival in Hong Kong later this year.

I have conducted filmmaking workshops at the Nashville Film Institute and am also a member of the programming committee for the Prescott Film Festival in Arizona.
I also freelance as a script supervisor, having script supervised the Bollywood film ‘London, Paris, New York’, and several short films.

I am a trained Indian Classical singer and have worked with academy award winning music composer A.R.Rahman.

I maintain a blog where I review films that are offbeat/independent and are thoughtprovoking—I try to explore the human condition through this blog.

A recent preoccupation has been Yoga, meditation, alternative therapies, parapsychology and other ways of exploring consciousness. Love reading J.Krishnamurti, Terence McKenna, Thoreau etc. who explored it in their own unique ways.

When I want to get away from it all, I take my rat terrier on long walks.

Of late, there has been a deep seated urge to help humanity in some way—Still figuring out if it should be through film or therapy.