Srinivas Krishna is an

Indo-Canadian Indian Canadians are Canadians who have ancestry from India. The term ''East Indian'' is sometimes used to avoid confusion with Indigenous groups. Categorically, Indian Canadians comprise a subgroup of South Asian Canadians which is a furthe ...

film and television director, most noted as the director, writer and lead actor of the 1991 film '' Masala''. Born in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, Krishna moved to Canada with his family in childhood. ''Masala'' premiered at the

1991 Toronto International Film Festival The 16th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 5 and September 14, 1991. Jodie Foster's directorial debut film Little Man Tate, premiered in the ''Gala Presentation'' at the festival. A ...

. The film, which drew on some the cinematic traditions of

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

rather than relying solely on the

social realist Social realism is work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers, filmmakers and some musicians that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures ...

conventions of Canadian film, has come to be recognized, alongside

Deepa Mehta Deepa Mehta, (; born 15 September 1950) is an Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, best known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire (1996 film), ''Fire'' (1996), ''Earth (1998 film), Earth'' (1998), and ''Water (2005 film), Water'' (2 ...

's contemporaneous '' Sam & Me'', as being the first major landmark films about the Indo-Canadian experience. Krishna followed up in 1996 with the film ''

Lulu Lulu may refer to: Companies * LuLu, an early automobile manufacturer * Lulu.com, an online e-books and print self-publishing platform, distributor, and retailer * Lulu Hypermarket, a retail chain in Asia * Lululemon Athletica or simply Lulu, a C ...

'', which premiered in the

Un Certain Regard (; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films with unusua ...

section at the

1996 Cannes Film Festival The 49th Cannes Film Festival took place from 9 to 20 May 1996. American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola served as jury president for the main competition. Sabine Azéma hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. British filmmaker Mike Leigh wo ...

. After ''Lulu'', Krishna principally directed television, with his credits including episodes of ''

Lexx ''Lexx'' (also known as ''LEXX: The Dark Zone Stories'' and ''Tales from a Parallel Universe'') is a science fiction television series created by Lex Gigeroff and brothers Paul Donovan (writer), Paul and Michael Donovan (producer), Michael Dono ...

'' and ''

The Smart Woman Survival Guide ''The Smart Woman Survival Guide'' is a Canadian situation comedy, filmed in Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, that aired from September 4, 2006, to January 5, 2008. It aired on the W Network and Cosmopolitan TV (Canada), CosmoTV. It was renewed for 26 ...

'', as well as having an acting role in Phillip Barker's short film '' Soul Cages''. He returned to film in 2009 with the documentary ''Ganesh, Boy Wonder'', about a young boy in India undergoing facial reconstruction surgery after being born with a severe facial disfigurement. In 2011, he curated an exhibition for Toronto's

Luminato Festival The Luminato Festival, Toronto's International Festival of Arts and Ideas, is an annual celebration of the arts in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, launched in 2007. In its first decade, Luminato presented over 3,000 performances featuring 11,000 artist ...

, celebrating the work of Indian film director

Raj Kapoor Raj Kapoor (; born as Shrishti Nath Kapoor; 14 December 1924 2 June 1988; also known as Ranbir Raj Kapoor) was an Indian actor, film director and producer, who worked in Hindi cinema. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influen ...

. In 2023,

Telefilm Canada Telefilm Canada is a Canadian Crown corporation that supports Canada's audiovisual industry. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm Canada provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in Vancouver, British Colu ...

announced that ''Masala'' was one of 23 titles that would be digitally restored under its new Canadian Cinema Reignited program to preserve classic Canadian films. The restored version screened in the Classics program at the

2024 Toronto International Film Festival The 49th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 5–15, 2024. The festival opened with David Gordon Green's film ''Nutcrackers (film), Nutcrackers'', and closed with Rebel Wilson's directorial debut film ''The Deb (fil ...

.Etan Vlessing
"Toronto Film Fest Adds Wang Bing, Roberto Minervini, Miguel Gomes Films to Wavelengths"
''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'', August 8, 2024.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Krishna, Srinivas 20th-century Canadian screenwriters 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian male actors 21st-century Canadian screenwriters 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian male screenwriters Canadian male film actors Film directors from Toronto Screenwriters from Toronto Indian emigrants to Canada Living people Asian-Canadian filmmakers Canadian television directors Canadian documentary film directors Year of birth missing (living people)