[ Isha Ashta ]

I am an advertising and documentary filmmaker with a passion for telling human stories. 

​

My ad film campaign for Horlicks won Bronze at the Indian Marketing Awards 2018, and my commercial for Hershey's Halloween won Best Digital Brand Video at the AFAQs Marketers' Excellence Awards 2023.

​

My documentary project, which tells the story of Sadam Hanjabam- an LGBTQI activist and champion of mental wellness, is featured on episode 5 of 'The Me You Can't See' - a 5-part series on mental health, and is streaming on Apple TV+.

​

​'Bones' - my first feature-length narrative screenplay, in early development, has received support at The Writer's Ink Screenwriting Lab '23-'24, and at Cine Qua Non Script Revision Lab 2024.​

​

Graduating in Mathematics, I brought my appetite for numbers to devouring films. I worked as a copywriter at Grey Worldwide for a year, and soon after, studied TV & Video Production at XIC, Mumbai. Over the next decade, I refined my skills as an assistant to various commercial and narrative film directors, and from there went on to start my directing career in 2018.

​

The female experience, identity, and coming of age are themes I am most interested in exploring through my work as a director. Exhausted by the tropes of female abjection we see on screen, I want my female characters to exist in their power, their messiness, and their vulnerability.

​

I am most influenced by the writing of Ottessa Moshfegh, Ann Patchett and Emily Austin.

​

I like all things soft, strong and feminine.