Ashim Ahluwalia

Biography: Ashim Ahluwalia is a Mumbai-based filmmaker whose provocative, genre-bending films have helped define a new wave of Indian cinema. His directorial debut, JOHN & JANE, premiered at the Toronto and Berlin film festivals in 2006 and became the first Indian film to receive a theatrical release from HBO Films. His second feature, MISS LOVELY (2012), premiered in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival and unearthed India’s underground sex horror cinema, while also reviving forgotten figures like disco singer Rupa. In 2017, he directed DADDY, an unorthodox biopic based on the true story of Arun Gawli, a feared underworld don still alive and serving time in a maximum-security prison. The film marked a bold break from formula, with critics calling Ahluwalia “the new-age godfather that Indian gangster films desperately need” (Poulomi Das, Arre). His short EVENTS IN A CLOUD CHAMBER, shot entirely on Super 8 film and reimagining modernist painter Akbar Padamsee’s lost 1969 experimental film, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Ahluwalia's contribution to the folk-horror anthology THE FIELD GUIDE TO EVIL (2018) premiered at SXSW and was distributed in the United States by Neon. His first series, CLA$$, produced for Netflix, was released in 2023. Though a global hit, the show retained Ahluwalia’s preoccupation with social disparity and the dark underbelly of modern India, focusing on the collision between working-class students and the ultra-rich. Ahluwalia is the only Indian director to have had his work premiere in the official selections of Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto, and SXSW. Sight and Sound’s Jonathan Romney described him as “a very impressive talent.” He was named one of the ten best emerging film directors working today by Phaidon Press in Take 100: The Future of Film.