Nisha Pahuja facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Nisha Pahuja
Pahuja in 2012
Born	(1967-06-03) 3 June 1967 (age 58) New Delhi, India
Occupation	Writer, filmmaker, artist

Nisha Pahuja (born in 1967) is a Canadian filmmaker. She was born in India and now lives in Toronto, Canada. She is known for making powerful documentary films.

Her film To Kill a Tiger was nominated for an Academy Award. This film won 19 awards at different festivals. It was shown at the TIFF and the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Famous people like Mindy Kaling and Dev Patel helped produce it.

Nisha Pahuja's other films include The World Before Her, which was nominated for an Emmy award. She also made Bollywood Bound and the series Diamond Road.

Early Life and Inspiration

Nisha Pahuja moved from India to Canada with her family when she was a child. She had to get used to a new "Western lifestyle." Nisha says her interest in film came from her childhood. She watched many Hindi films. These films showed Indian girls growing up in a Western world.

Pahuja is also a fellow at the Bellagio Centre. This center is part of the Rockefeller Foundation. The foundation works to improve life for people around the world. They do this through different projects and meetings. Nisha has always wanted to help create positive change. This goal is often seen in the main ideas of her films.

Filmmaking Journey

Nisha Pahuja studied English Literature at the University of Toronto. She first wanted to write fiction stories. But a meeting with a Canadian producer, Geeta Sondhi, changed her path. Geeta hired Nisha as a researcher for a documentary. This started Nisha's journey into making documentaries.

Nisha chose to focus on documentaries because she loves finding real people. She enjoys hearing their true stories. She feels these stories help show bigger problems in society. She said, "A human being reveals themselves to you in such a profound kind of way." She was drawn to connecting with real people and their experiences.

Early in her career, Nisha worked as a researcher. She worked with Canadian filmmakers John Walker and Ali Kazimi. Soon after, Nisha started making her own films.

Her films have been successful in many countries, including North America and India. One of her films, The World Before Her, explores the different lives of young girls in India. It follows women in the Miss India Pageant. It also shows girls training in the Durga Vahini, a women's group.

The World Before Her first showed at the Tribeca International Film Festival. It won the Best Documentary award there. The film then traveled to many festivals worldwide. It won several more awards. These included Best Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs.

To make her films, Nisha and her team raised money. They got funds from foundations and through crowdsourcing. Nisha even started a Kickstarter campaign. She wanted to raise $50,000, and she actually raised $57,000!

In 2014, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap helped promote The World Before Her in India. This helped the film reach more people. Nisha and her team also traveled to different states. They worked with groups that support women's rights. They showed the film in communities that needed it most. They also had deep talks with different audiences. This showed Nisha how important documentaries are for creating social change.

In 2022, Nisha Pahuja released her documentary To Kill a Tiger. It first showed at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. There, it won the award for Best Canadian Feature Film.

Awards and Recognitions

Nisha's first feature film, Bollywood Bound, was nominated for a Gemini Award in 2002. In 2008, Nisha won the Gemini Award for Best Documentary Series for Diamond Road.

Her third film, The World Before Her, made Nisha known around the world. It won many awards at film festivals. These include:

• "Best Documentary Feature" and "Jury Award Winner" from the Tribeca Film Festival.
• "Best Canadian Documentary" from Hot Docs.
• It was also named one of TIFF's Canada's Top Ten films.

Pahuja's latest film, To Kill a Tiger, won the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film at TIFF. Since then, it has won 19 awards. These include:

• "Best Documentary Feature" at Palm Springs International Film Festival.
• Three Canadian Screen Awards, including the Ted Rogers award for Best Feature Length Documentary in 2023.
• The Beyond the Screen Award at Doc Aviv 2023.

To Kill a Tiger was also voted one of TIFF Canada's top ten films. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2024.

The World Before Her also received many awards and nominations:

• "Best Canadian Feature Documentary" (2012) at the Edmonton Film Festival.
• "Best Documentary" (2012) at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
• "Best Foreign Film" (2012) at Traverse City Film Festival.
• "Best International Document" (2013) at Byron Bay International Film Festival.
• "Special Jury Mention" (2012) at the San Diego Asian Film Festival.
• "Best Documentary Feature" (2012) at the Tribeca Film Festival.
• "VFCC" Award for Best Screenplay at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle (2012).
• "Best Documentary" (2012) at the Warsaw International Film Festival.

This film was also nominated for:

• "Best Documentary" at the Zurich Film Festival (2012).
• "Ted Rogers Best Feature Length Documentary" at the Genie Awards (2012).
• "Best Feature Length Documentary" at the Canadian Screen Awards (2013).
• "Social Justice Award for Documentary Film" at the Santa Barbara Film Festival (2013).

Films by Nisha Pahuja

• Bollywood Bound (2003)
• Diamond Road (2007)
• The World Before Her (2012)
• To Kill a Tiger (2022)