Ankita Biswas, a filmmaker from Tinsukia in Assam, has carved a distinctive route through Indian cinema, moving from regional short films and advertisements to high-profile commercial projects in Mumbai.
Biswas credits a storytelling-rich childhood for shaping her imagination. Family narratives, she says, planted the earliest seeds of creativity and helped her see herself as a storyteller long before she understood filmmaking as a profession.
Her entry into the industry was organic rather than planned. “Cinema was never a mapped-out career for me,” Biswas said, describing how curiosity gradually turned into passion and then into purpose. She began by writing and directing short films and ads in Assam and later expanded into directing larger commercial projects.
A spontaneous but carefully considered move to Mumbai exposed her to new challenges and opportunities. Biswas has since worked on a range of notable projects, including Mirzapur, Call Me Bae and Monkey Man, and has gained experience collaborating with major production houses such as Dharma Productions, Yash Raj Films and Excel Entertainment. She said those collaborations broadened her understanding of storytelling and reshaped her cinematic approach.
On the film Raakh, Biswas described the production as an unexpected but deeply significant undertaking for the team. Although the final outcome could not be predicted, she recalled a shared sense among collaborators that they were creating something meaningful, a process that involved long working days, emotional highs and lows, and strong collective commitment.
Looking ahead, Biswas said she intends to continue telling stories rooted in Assam, aiming to bring the region’s narratives and cultural perspectives to wider, even global, audiences.