Vibha Bakshi (born 23 September 1970) is an Indian filmmaker,

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, and founder of Responsible Films. She is known for her films that highlight issues of

gender inequality Gender inequality is the social phenomenon in which men and women are not treated equally. The treatment may arise from distinctions regarding biology, psychology, or cultural norms prevalent in the society. Some of these distinctions are empi ...

. Vibha's most notable films as both director and producer include '' Daughters of Mother India'' and '' Son Rise''. Both films are winners of the

National Film Awards The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorat ...

from the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

. She is the recipient of four

from the

. Vibha has been awarded the Honorary

Doctor of Humane Letters The degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (; DHumLitt; DHL; or LHD) is an honorary degree awarded to those who have distinguished themselves through humanitarian and philanthropic contributions to society. The criteria for awarding the degree differ ...

by the

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

in 2018 for her work as a journalist and filmmaker.

Early life and education

Vibha was born on 23 September 1970 in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, India. Her father, Ved Chhabra, is a businessman and was named among the ''Top 100 business leaders'' by

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

in 2018, and her mother Geeta Chhabra, is a poet and writer. Vibha attended Convent of Jesus and Mary and St Xaviers College,

. She went to the United States for her undergraduate study in Journalism and Broadcasting. She graduated with a

Bachelor of science degree 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 of ...

in Communication from

in 1993 and completed a diploma course on broadcasting at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

in 1999.

Career

Vibha started her career in broadcast journalism with Plus Channel,

. She later joined

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

(

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

) as part of GE's founding team. In 2004, Vibha became co-producer with Oscar winner Maryann DeLeo. Their films include ''Terror at Home (2005)'' for Lifetime TV and was part of the

United States Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

-winning campaign to stop violence against women – and

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

's film ''Too Hot NOT to Handle (2006)'' on the issue of Global warming. Her work includes short films on the jewel palaces of India for

Taj Hotels Taj Hotels is a chain of luxury hotels and a subsidiary of the Indian Hotels Company Limited, headquartered in Mumbai, India. Incorporated by Jamsetji Tata in 1902, the company is a part of the Tata Group, one of India's largest business conglom ...

, including for

Falaknuma Palace Falaknuma is a palace in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It originally belonged to the Paigah family, and was later owned by the Nizam of Hyderabad. It is on a hillock and covers a area in Falaknuma, from Charminar. It was built by Nawab Sir V ...

, Lake Udaipur Palace,

Umaid Bhawan Palace Umaid Bhawan Palace, located in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India, is one of the world's largest private residences. A part of the palace is managed by Taj Hotels. It is named after Maharaja Umaid Singh, grandfather of the present owner, Gaj Singh. The ...

, and

Rambagh Palace The Rambagh Palace in Jaipur, Rajasthan is the former residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur located outside the walls of the city of Jaipur on Bhawani Singh road. History The first building on the site was a garden house built in 1835 for the we ...

. Vibha's film for the Tata Medical Centre,

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, a ₹4 billion philanthropy initiative funded by Tata Trusts and led by

Ratan Tata Ratan Naval Tata, GBE (born 28 December 1937) is an Indian industrialist and former chairman of Tata Sons. He was also the chairman of the Tata Group from 1990 to 2012, serving also as interim chairman from October 2016 through February 2017. ...

, was aired across 29 channels in India in English and 9 regional languages. She directed and produced the Women Safety Campaign for the

Mumbai Police The Mumbai Police (Marathi: मुंबई पोलीस, IAST: ''Mumbaī Pulīs'', formerly ''Bombay Police'') is the police department of the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of Maharashtra Police and has the primary responsibiliti ...

in 2015. She was felicitated by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra

Devendra Fadnavis Devendra Gangadharrao Fadnavis (Marathi pronunciation: ��ेवेंद्र फडणवीस born 22 July 1970) is an Indian politician serving as the 9th and current Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra since 30 June 2022. He served as ...

for this work. Her latest gender rights films Son Rise and Daughters of Mother India are changing the narrative on gender inequality and gender justice globally.

Daughters of Mother India

Vibha's film Daughters of Mother India, won the

62nd National Film Awards The 62nd National Film Awards ceremony was an event during which the Directorate of Film Festivals presents its annual National Film Awards to honour the best films of 2014 in the Cinema of India, Indian cinema. The awards were announced on 24 M ...

in 2015 for Best Film on Social Issues. As director and producer, she received two awards from the

Pranab Mukherjee Dr. Pranab Mukherjee (11 December 193531 August 2020) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 13th president of India from 2012 until 2017. In a political career spanning five decades, Mukherjee was a senior leader in the India ...

. National Film Awards Jury described the film for turning the spotlight on the burning issue of rape and gender violence in the country. The film had a prime-time simulcast release in

across

Viacom 18 Viacom18 Media Private Limited is an Indian media and entertainment joint venture between TV18 and Paramount Global based in Mumbai. It was founded in 2007 and owns various channels, as well as content production studios in India. History In ...

's 10 channels in 8 languages, a first for a documentary film in India. In 2017, Global Creative Index rated Daughters of Mother India as the Most Awarded PR Program in the World. Vibha's film was nominated at the Cannes Glass Lions award for 'Media Advocacy that Changed the World'. Daughters of Mother India was screened for over officers of the

Indian Police Force The Indian Police Service ( IPS) is a civil service under the All India Services. It replaced the Indian Imperial Police in 1948, a year after India became independent from the British Raj. Along with the Indian Administrative Service (IA ...

as a gender-sensitization and training tool for the Police to deal with gender-related crimes. It has also been incorporated into the curriculum of 200 schools in

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

. Daughters of Mother India was selected as the opening film at the Indian Panorama during the

46th International Film Festival of India The 46th International Film Festival of India was held on 20 to 30 November 2015 in Goa. The International Jury was headed by the chairperson, Shekhar Kapur along with UK based director, Micheal Radford, Palestinian based Israel director, Ms. Suha ...

(IFFI), held in November 2015 in

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

. The festival was hosted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Directorate of Film Festivals.

Son Rise

Son Rise follows men from India’s seat of patriarchy, Haryana who are trying to break the shackles of patriarchy and fight for women's rights. Vibha has been awarded the

66th National Film Awards The 66th National Film Awards ceremony was the award ceremony which took place in 2019 to honour the best films of 2018, in the Indian cinema. The declaration of awards was delayed due to 2019 Indian general election. Selection process The Direc ...

for Best Film Non-Feature as both director and producer, the highest honour for cinema in the country. Son Rise also won Best Editing Non-Feature. In 2021, Son Rise was selected by

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

, to be screened as part of UN Women’s global HeForShe campaign across 71 countries. The film was unveiled by United Nations Under-Secretary-General

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (; born 3 November 1955), South African Government Information. is a South Africa, South African politician and former United Nations official, who served as the Executive Director of UN Women with the rank of Under-Secret ...

followed by screenings by Consulates and Embassies of the World in India. The film kicked off the inaugural Bloomberg Equality Summit in

, the first in Asia. Son Rise was the official selection for the Indian Panorama section at the

50th International Film Festival of India The 50th International Film Festival of India was held from 20 to 28 November 2019 in Goa. Russia is the country of focus with eight Russian language films being screened. Jury * John Bailey, Chairperson * Robin Campillo, French screenwrite ...

. The film won the Jury Award for Best Documentary at the Mumbai International Film Festival and Best Documentary at the

New York Indian Film Festival The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) is an annual film festival that takes place in New York City, and screens films relating to India, the Indian Diaspora, and the work of Indian filmmakers. The festival began in November 2001 and was foun ...

. Son Rise was recently screened at World Expo 2020,

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

's largest venue, Jubilee stage. The screening was followed by a call of action by 50 countries who pledged for gender equality - led by

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and the Women’s Pavilion at

Expo 2020 Expo 2020 ( ar, إكسبو 2020) was a World Expo hosted by Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022. Originally scheduled for 20 October 2020 to 10 April 2021, it was postponed due to the COVID-19 ...

. The event was attended by the cultural figures, diplomatic community, business leaders, academics and change-makers to spotlight a shared human rights and women’s rights issue — violence against women.

Awards and nominations

In 2018, Bakshi was awarded the Honorary

from her alma mater

for her work as a journalist and filmmaker. She was the commencement speaker at

's School of Communications. Vibha is the winner of the ''

Vogue India ''Vogue India'' is the Indian edition of the monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine ''Vogue''. It is the 17th international edition of ''Vogue'' and the first edition in South Asia. ''Vogue India'' is published by Condé Nast India Pvt. Ltd., a ...

'' - ''Women of the Year - 2021 Award'' for her films that have contributed towards gender equality and gender justice globally.

Personal life

Vibha is married to Vishal Bakshi, former

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

Head Private Equity India and now founder of Private Equity firm Avatar Growth Capital Partners. The couple has two boys, Varun and Vir.

References

External links

Vibha Bakshi
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bakshi, Vibha Living people Boston University alumni Directors who won the Best Film on Other Social Issues National Film Award Producers who won the Best Film on Other Social Issues National Film Award Indian documentary filmmakers Indian women documentary filmmakers Indian women television journalists Indian women journalists National Film Award (India) winners Film directors from Mumbai Film producers from Mumbai 1970 births