Aparna Sanyal

Acknowledged for her documentaries A Drop of Sunshine and The Monks Who Won The Grammy, Aparna Sanyal is an Indian filmmaker who has a National Award in her kitty. Born and brought up in India, Aparna Sanyal did part of her schooling at St. Joseph’s Convent High School in Patna and later joined Mother’s International School in Delhi. Since school, Aparna Sanyal actively took part in dramatic and cultural events. She has also been a member of her school magazine’s editorial board. In 1997, she joined Hindu College, University of Delhi, to pursue her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Economics. As always, apart from academics, she also excelled in extra-curricular activities.

Post her Bachelor’s degree completion, Aparna Sanyal enrolled herself in A.J.K. Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, and did her Master of Arts degree in Mass Communication. Aparna Sanyal started her career as an intern in INTV and then got promoted as an Assistant researcher and further as an Assistant director. She worked as an Assistant Director for the weekly debate show Crossfire. In 2001, she moved to work in the CNN channel as an Assistant Researcher, where she got the chance to work closely on the incidents, including 9/11 attacks, the Iraq War of 2003, the Agra Summit in 2001, etc. Later, Aparna Sanyal performed as a consultant for various companies and worked as the head of Delhi’s Times Now Programming team.

In 2004, Aparna Sanyal directed a documentary called TedhiLakeer, which talks about two gay men in India. After a gap of some years, she returned to the direction in 2011 with the short film A Drop of Sunshine. The film follows the story of Reshma Valiappan’s encounter with schizophrenia. The film met with positive reviews and won several accolades. It got praised for its content and even went on to win the 59th National Film Awards The National Film Awards gets presented every year >> Read More... for the Best Educational Film. Additionally, it won five awards at the 2010 Indian Documentary Producers Association Awards.

Some of her other works are Shovana, The Monks who won the Grammy, and Sunyata – When Kathak met Cham. In 2008, Aparna Sanyal started her own production house in the name Mixed Media Productions with Gaurav Dhingra Gaurav Dhingra is the Producer and Co-Founder at J >> Read More... , whom she met during the TV show The Amazing Race. As a producer, Aparna Sanyal has produced the show IRT: Deadliest Roads, the documentaries Incredibly Small World, and The Real Marigold Hotel. In 2011, she co-founded The Red Door along with Reshma Valliappan.