Teenaa Kaur Pasricha

I’m Teenaa. I’m a filmmaker living in Mumbai but travelling all over. I am a fan of travel, arts, and Nature. I’m also interested in dance and camping.My work is driven by a desire to explore human resilience and to amplify stories that are often silenced or overlooked.

I believe that the personal is political. My recent film, What If I Tell You, blends documentary realism with a deeply feminist perspective to explore the stigma of breast cancer—a subject close to my heart. It has found audiences at the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal and IDSFFK Kerala.

My growth as a storyteller has been shaped by global mentorship. I was honored to be a Time Warner Foundation Screenwriting Fellow (Asia Society, New York) for my debut feature screenplay, The Red Autumn. Later, I was selected as a U.S. Government IVLP Fellow for Films for Social Change, a program associated with the Sundance Film Festival, which allowed me to engage with leading independent creators across the United States.

My journey as a filmmaker has been defined by a commitment to social justice. This commitment was recognized when I received the National Film Award for Best Investigative Film from the President of India for 1984, When the Sun Didn’t Rise. The film, which chronicles the lives of Sikh widows surviving the aftermath of the 1984 massacre, continues to travel through universities in the UK, US, and Canada. For me, its success lies not in the accolades, but in the fact that these women’s stories are finally being heard with the dignity they deserve. (Please refer to filmography)

Beyond filmmaking, I am passionate about creating dialogue. I have shared my life journey and survivor story on TEDx and PechaKucha stages, and presented on the intersection of health, environment, and faith at the World Congress of Faiths in Geneva.

From receiving from the Busan International Film Festival’s AND Fund to having my work broadcast on National Geographic and DD, my mission remains the same: to create cinema that doesn’t just sensationalize change to drama, but helps make it happen in reality.