Rima Das is an Indian filmmaker best known for her film, Village Rockstars which won several National and international awards. The film, written, directed, edited and produced by Das, was India's official entry for the Oscars, 2018 in the Best Foreign Language Film Category. The film, chosen out of 28 other entries in India, is also the first Assamese film to be submitted for Oscar consideration. She won India's National Award for Best Film and Best Editor, announced on 13 April 2018 by a Government of India appointed jury headed by filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor. Village Rockstars is the second Assamese film to get national recognition after Jahnu Barua's Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai.The film traces the story of Dhunu, a girl from a village in Assam who dreams of owning a guitar and forming a rock band. In 2018, GQ India named Das as one of the 50 Most Influential Young Indians of 2018. Doctorate degree has been conferred to Rima Das at the 3rd convocation of Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University held at the Srimanta Sankardeva International Auditorium on February 3.
Career
Das made her first short film, Pratha in 2009. She started work on her first feature film Antardrishti , shot with a Canon DSLR camera in Kalardiya, in 2013. In 2016, Antardrishti was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, the Mumbai Film Festival and the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia. It marked the arrival of Ms. Das as more than a self-taught filmmaker. She became a one-woman crew, writing, directing, producing, editing and shooting a film, besides handling art direction and costume designing. Rockstars was Das's second film after Antardrishti. Her 2018 film, Bulbul Can Sing, was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2019, she directed her first documentary fiction ‘Sunshine Dreamers’. This is a result of her collaboration with BRICS co-production Kids & Glory for which she worked with Producer Lu Chuan and fellow BRICS Directors Tiago Arakilian, Nastia Tarasova, Shen Zhao Qing, Shane Vermooten and Lu Chuan. Das is not trained in any aspect of filmmaking. This, she believes has turned out to be a boon for her career. In her own words, "The fact that I am not trained and I didn't go to a film school in a way helped me to explore more and to be true to my vision. Be it the writing, direction, cinematography or editing, I didn't follow a method trained professionals would. I could understand my craft better and create my own kind of cinema. Watching world cinema inspired me and gave me a perspective of global filmmaking. But I think having my own unique style helped me stand out."
Personal Life
Das hails from the village Kalardiya near Chhaygaon in Assam, 50 km southwest of Guwahati. She is the daughter of a teacher. She cleared the National Eligibility Test after her Masters in Sociology at Pune University. But the desire to be an actor took her to Mumbai in 2003. She acted in plays, including an adaptation of Premchand's Godaan staged at the Prithvi Theatre. she spent hours watching the work of masters Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman and Majid Majidi.
