Aruna Vasudev (born 1936) is an Indian critic, author, editor, painter, maker of documentaries and is considered an eminent scholar on

Asian cinema Asian cinema refers to the film industries and films produced in the continent of Asia. However, in countries like the United States, it is often used to refer only to the cinema of East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. West Asian cinema is s ...

, who has also been described as the "mother of Asian Cinema".

Early life and education

A younger sister of

Uma Vasudeva Uma Vasudeva (18 June 1931 – 27 March 2019) was an Indian writer and columnist. She was one of the early editors of ''India Today''. Works Her book ''Indira Gandhi: Revolution in Restraint'' covers Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi ...

, she was born in 1936. After marrying Sunil Kumar Roy, an Indian diplomat, she chose to retain her maiden name. His Excellency Sunil Roy died in New York from cancer in 1993, having previously served as Indian Ambassador to Poland, then Mexico, and High Commissioner to Nigeria. In the early 1960s, she attended film classes in New York where her father was working and created a number of short documentaries after her return to India. She received a doctorate from the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

on cinema and censorship. Her PhD thesis was published as a book titled ''Liberty and Licence in the Indian Cinema'' in 1979.

Career

Vasudev currently serves as director of Osian's-Connoisseurs of Art Private Limited. She is also one of the Trustees of the Public Service Broadcasting Trust in India. She started as a greenhorn helping in the makeup rooms of Doordarsan in 1960. She launched

Cinemaya ''Cinemaya'' (a blend of ''cinema'' and ''maya'' (illusion)) is a film magazine established in 1988 devoted exclusively to coverage of Asian film. It is published in New Delhi, India and distributed internationally. The present editor-in-chief o ...

in 1988 as a publication that showcases filmmakers from Asia. In 1991, she founded the internationally renowned

NETPAC The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) is a worldwide organization of 29 member countries. It was created as the result of a conference on Asian cinema organized by Cinemaya, the Asian Film Quarterly, in New Delhi in 1990 at the ins ...

as an organisation to forward the cause of Asian films. Since 1990, she has been the President or Jury Member of international film festivals including Karlovy Vary,

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Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...

(Camera d'Or),

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife), the most populous city in the auto ...

Pusan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, Fajr (

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

), and

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Honours and awards

Honours

Appointed Cavaliere della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana in 2004, in 2019 Vasudev was honoured by the French Government as Officier des Arts et des Lettres, the highest accolades from two major film-producing countries, Italy and France.

Awards

In 1997, Vasudev won the Korean Cinema Award at the

Pusan International Film Festival The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, previously Pusan International Film Festival, PIFF), held annually in Haeundae-gu, Busan (''also'' Pusan), South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. The first festi ...

. In 2006, Vasudev received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the

Cinemanila International Film Festival The Cinemanila International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Manila, Philippines. It was founded by Filipino filmmaker Amable "Tikoy" Aguiluz in 1999. The focus of the festival is on the cinema of the Philippines as well as Southea ...

. In 2015, Vasudev was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2nd edition of the International Film Festival of Colombo for her contributions towards putting Asian cinema on the international map. At the

Hawaii International Film Festival The Hawai'i International Film Festival (HIFF) is an annual film festival held in the United States state of Hawaii. HIFF has a focus on Asian-Pacific cinema, education, and the work of new and emerging filmmakers. HIFF’s primary festival is ...

the same year, Vasudev won a Vision in Film Award. The Tripoli Film Festivalwww.tripoli-filmfestival.org
/ref> has named its prize for Best Writing on Cinema as the “Aruna Vasudev Award”.

References

External links

IMDB profileCinemaya official website
* German Wikipage on Aruna Vasudev
25 years of NETPAC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasudev, Aruna 1936 births Living people Indian editors 21st-century Indian people Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres