Dhvani Desai is an Indian

animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

filmmaker, curator and poet. She is best known for her artistic animated films (the Perfect Match) and (The Vicious Circle).

Early life

Desai was born in an illustrious family of writers, poets & filmmakers in Mumbai. Her father, Dr Sudhir Desai, is a poet, thinker, and scholar. Her mother, Tarini Desai, is a modern short story writer in Gujarati. Her elder sister, Sanskritirani Desai, is also a Gujarati poet and brother Sanskar a senior Documentary Filmmaker.

Career

Desai holds a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in Statistics from

Elphinstone College Elphinstone College is one of the constituent colleges of Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, a state cluster university. Established in 1856, it is one of the oldest colleges in Mumbai. It played a major role in shaping and developing the edu ...

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, and a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

degree in Finance from the

SVKM's NMIMS Shri Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal's Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (abbreviated as SVKM's NMIMS) is a private deemed university located in Mumbai. It has 17 constituent schools that offer both undergraduate and postgraduate courses ...

, Mumbai. Later she earned a post-graduate diploma in Computer Management from

Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (commonly referred to as JBIMS) is the Department of Management Studies of the University of Mumbai, situated in Churchgate, Mumbai. The institute is named after noted industrialist and freedom f ...

. Desai entered the field of animation in 1991. She worked as a trainee at a computer animation studio, where she learned

2D animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation of the 20th century, until there was a shif ...

. After this, she joined Xavier's Institute of Communication in Mumbai for formal training in

3D animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Modern ...

, before working in two animation studios. Desai then joined the Computer Graphiti (at the time, a pioneer studio in the field of Indian animation) where she worked on numerous ads under guidance of Padmashri Ram Mohan combining 2D animation with live action & 3D, before establishing her own animation studio, Metamorphosis'','' in Mumbai, which has produced animations and special effects for advertising films. The Mahatma Gandhi Foundation produced and Desai co-directed with her elder brother, Sanskar, a short animation film, ''The Mahatma,'' and other five films which depicted the principles of Gandhiji. The films were selected at the Tehran International Animation Festival in 2001 and at the

Mumbai International Film Festival The Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films (MIFF) is a festival organized in the city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) by the Films Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Infor ...

. The

Children's Film Society of India Children's Film Society India (CFSI) was a nodal organisation of Government of India that produced children's films and various TV programs in various Indian languages. Established in 1955, CFSI functioned under the Ministry of Information an ...

produced and Desai directed an 11-minute long animated film, (''The Perfect Match)''. It was officially selected in various festivals in Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, Turkey, Canada, Taiwan and Kenya and won several international Awards. The

Panchatantra The ''Panchatantra'' ( IAST: Pañcatantra, ISO: Pañcatantra, , "Five Treatises") is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story.

-based tale used the

Vaishnavite Vaishnavism () ), also called Vishnuism, is one of the major Hindu denominations, Hindu traditions, that considers Vishnu as the sole Para Brahman, supreme being leading all other Hindu deities, that is, ''Mahavishnu''. It is one of the majo ...

Sanjhi art style, a form of

stencil Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object. The holes allow the pigment to reach only some parts of the surface creatin ...

art, and took over two years to make, with 42 artists working on it. was nominated at the International Animation Film Festival in Hollywood and selected at several other international film festivals. The film was screened at Hyderabad's '' The Golden Elephant'' (the 15th International Children's Film Festival) in November 2007 and was the inaugural film at the Asian Women's Film Festival in New Delhi in 2008. Desai has also worked on cartoon and animated titles produced by the

National Film Development Corporation of India The National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) based in Mumbai is the central agency established in 1975, to encourage high quality Indian cinema. It functions in areas of film financing, production and distribution and under the Min ...

. (The Vicious Circle), her film first time on a legal act promoting awareness around India's

Right to Information Act Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theor ...

(RTI), was produced by the Films Division and released on the 8th Anniversary of the RTI Act in an event organised by the Public Concern for Governance Trust (PCGT), the Indian Merchants' Chamber's (IMC) Anti Corruption Cell, and Bombay Chartered Accountants Society. This film has won several awards and nomination worldwide. Desai has been associated as festival curator for many international film festivals for animation programmes within India and abroad.

Awards

* ''Gold Remi Award'', 41st World Fest Houston, U.S.A. 2008 (for ''Manpasand — The Perfect Match'') * Bronze World Medal 2008 New York Film Festival * Silver Award (Best Short Fiction of a Director), Indian Documentary Producer's Association, 2007 * Prix Danube Festival award, Slovakia 2008 * Award for Best Practices in RTI, DOPT, Government of India and Yashada, 2014 * Award from Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Govt of India, 2015 * Most Popular Film Award, Mumbai International Film Festival, 2014

Honours and achievements

* Jury at 66th

National Film Awards The National Film Awards are awards for artistic and technical merit given for "Excellence within the Cinema of India, Indian film industry". Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India ...

2019 in the Non-Feature Category * Jury at

Bangalore International Film Festival The Bengaluru International Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Bangalore, Bengaluru, the capital of the Indian States of India, state of Karnataka, which previews films of all genres, including documentaries from around the world ...

2020 BIFFES * Jury at

Pune International Film Festival The Pune International Film Festival (also known as PIFF) is an annual film festival held in Pune, a city in Maharashtra, India. Open to general public, the films are screened at National Film Archive of India, NFAI, INOX Leisure Limited, Inox ...

PIFF 2016 in the Animation Category * Grand Jury at

New York Festivals New York Festivals are a collection of related annual arts and media awards based in New York City. The awards include the New York Festivals Advertising Awards, "Advertising and Marketing Effectiveness" AME Awards, Bowery Awards, Global Awards, ...

2014 * Jury at Third Eye Asian Film Festival 2015 * Jury at

International Film Festival of India The International Film Festival of India (IFFI), founded in 1952, is an annual film festival currently held in Goa, on the western coast of India. The festival aims at providing a common platform for the cinemas of the world to project the excel ...

IFFI 2022 She has served as Jury in several international film festivals in India and abroad.

References

External links