Dhvani Desai is an Indian animation filmmaker, curator and poet. She is best known for her artistic animated films (the Perfect Match) and (The Vicious Circle).

Early life

Desai was born in an illustrious family of writers, poets & filmmakers in Mumbai. Her father, Dr Sudhir Desai, is a poet, thinker, and scholar. Her mother, Tarini Desai, is a modern short story writer in

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

. Her elder sister, Sanskritirani Desai, is also a

poet and brother Sanskar a senior Documentary Filmmaker

Career

Desai holds a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

in Statistics from

Elphinstone College Elphinstone College is one of the constituent colleges of Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, a state cluster university. Established in 1823, it is one of the oldest colleges in Mumbai. It played a major role in shaping and developing the ed ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

, and a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accoun ...

degree in Finance from the SVKM's NMIMS, Mumbai. Later she earned a post-graduate diploma in Computer Management from

Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies is the Department of Management Studies of the University of Mumbai. The institute is named after industrialist and philanthropist, Jamnalal Bajaj. Programmes JBIMS offers full-time Masters in ...

. Desai entered the field of animation in 1991. She worked as a trainee at a computer animation studio, where she learned

2D animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation. Proc ...

. After this, she joined Xavier's Institute of Communication in Mumbai for formal training in

3D animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

, before working in two animation studios. Desai then joined the Computer Graphiti (at the time, a pioneer studio in the field of Indian animation) where she worked on numerous ads under guidance of Padmashri Ram Mohan combining 2D animation with live action & 3D, before establishing her own animation studio, Metamorphosis'','' in Mumbai, which has produced animations and special effects for advertising films. The

Mahatma Gandhi Foundation The Mahatma Gandhi Foundation is located in Mumbai, India and is headed by Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and the son of nonviolent activist and organiser Arun Gandhi. The organisation under the leadership of Tushar, a socio- ...

produced and Desai co-directed with her elder brother, Sanskar, a short animation film, ''The Mahatma,'' and other five films which depicted the principles of

Gandhiji Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

. The films were selected at the Tehran International Animation Festival in 2001 and at the

Mumbai International Film Festival The Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films (MIFF) is a festival organized in the city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) by the Films Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. It ...

. The

Children's Film Society of India Children's Film Society India (CFSI) was a nodal organization of Government of India that produced children's films and various TV programs in various Indian languages. Established in 1955, CFSI functioned under the Ministry of Information and ...

produced and Desai directed an 11-minute long animated film, (''The Perfect Match)''. It was officially selected in various festivals in Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, Turkey, Canada,Taiwan Kenya etc and won several international Awards. The Panchatantra-based tale used the

Vaishnavite Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...

Sanjhi art style, a form of stencil art, and took over two years to make, with 42 artists working on it. was nominated at the International Animation Film Festival in Hollywood and selected at several other international film festivals. The film was screened at Hyderabad's ''

The Golden Elephant The International Children's Film Festival India (ICFFI), popularly known as the Golden Elephant, was a film festival conducted for seven days November 14th ( Children’s Day) and November 20th every two years which is aimed to bring together ...

'' (the 15th International Children's Film Festival) in November 2007 and was the inaugural film at the Asian Women's Film Festival in New Delhi in 2008. Desai has also worked on cartoon and animated titles produced by the

National Film Development Corporation of India The National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) based in Mumbai is the central agency established in 1975, to encourage high quality Indian cinema. It functions in areas of film financing, production and distribution and under Ministr ...

. (The Vicious Circle), her film first time on a legal act promoting awareness around India's

Right to Information Act The Right to Information (RTI) is an act of the Parliament of India which sets out the rules and procedures regarding citizens' right to information. It replaced the former Freedom of Information Act, 2002. Under the provisions of RTI Act, a ...

(RTI), was produced by the Films Division and released on the 8th Anniversary of the RTI Act in an event organised by the Public Concern for Governance Trust (PCGT), the Indian Merchants' Chamber's ( IMC ) Anti Corruption Cell, and Bombay Chartered Accountants Society. This film has won several awards and nomination worldwide

Awards

* ''Gold Remi Award'', 41st World Fest Houston, U.S.A. 2008 (for ''Manpasand — The Perfect Match'') * Bronze World Medal 2008 New York Film Festival * Silver Award (Best Short Fiction of a Director), Indian Documentary Producer's Association, 2007 * Prix Danube Festival award, Slovakia 2008 * Award for Best Practices in RTI, DOPT, Government of India and Yashada, 2014 * Award from Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Govt of India, 2015 * Most Popular Film Award, Mumbai International Film Festival, 2014

Honours and Achievements

* Jury at 66th National Film Awards 2019 in the Non-Feature Category * Jury at Bangalore International Film Festival 2020 BIFFES * Jury at

Pune International Film Festival The Pune International Film Festival (also known as PIFF) is an annual film festival held in Pune, a city in Maharashtra, India. Open to general public, the films are screened at NFAI, Inox, City Pride, PVR cinema halls, all located in Pune ...

PIFF 2016 in the Animation Category * Grand Jury at New York Festivals 2014 She has served as Jury in several international film festivals in India and abroad.

References

External links