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Smriti Kiran is a creator, producer and impact strategist with decades of experience in the Indian film industry. She works at a rare intersection of culture, credibility, commerce and connection, with a deep understanding of storytelling, storytellers and translating creative ambition into long-term sustained global relevance.
As Artistic Director of the Mumbai Film Festival and the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI, 2015-2022), she repositioned the institution within the international film landscape while strengthening its engagement with Indian creators. Under her leadership, the festival evolved into a cutting-edge entity, programming the best of global cinema, discovering new talent and fertilising the local cinematic landscape for visibility, growth and opportunities. She programmed international cinema alongside emerging and established Indian voices, launched the Year-Round Programme to sustain multi-city engagement beyond the annual festival, and conceived the Word-to-Screen Market to build a structured bridge between literature and film. She also developed and curated a robust industry programme connecting Indian filmmakers and producers with global decision-makers. Her international engagements include serving on juries at the Jerusalem, Cairo and Munich International Film Festivals, conducting and participating in global conversations on film, and curating for global platforms (We Are One, Tribeca). She was invited as one of eight global experts to decide the ARRAY (Ava DuVernay) Google feature film grant for underrepresented filmmakers. Beyond MAMI, she has designed industry frameworks and profile-elevation strategies for platforms such as the Brahmaputra Valley Film Festival, the biggest film festival in the north east region of India, serves as Creative Advisor and Juror for the inaugural Bhopal Film Festival (2026) and Consulting Director to Parda Faash, the gentle and fierce film festival organised by the Asia Society of India. She curated, designed and hosted the inaugural edition of the Inca Conclave in Mumbai in 2026. She has an ongoing series called The Big List with Smriti Kiran on Homegrown that brings into focus the exceptional behind the scenes talent that pumps blood into the movie making ecosystem.
Through her company Polka Dots Lightbox, she works with filmmakers, producers and studios on narrative development, positioning and international visibility strategy. Her work includes shaping festival and perception pathways for projects such as Sandhya Suri’s Santosh (Cannes), Prithviraj’s Aadujeevitham, and Suparn Verma’s Haq. She set up the inaugural content slate for Rock Honey Films for The Swaddle India and launched The Rockford Circle, hosted by Chitrangada Singh, now in its third season. She has co-produced and led impact strategy on debut films by Romil Modi (Laar) and Sayani Gupta (Aasmani), she produced Gautam Arora’s narrative short These People, scheduled to begin its festival journey in 2026. She is creative consultant to The Aangan Trust’s short film programme aimed to create global awareness, impact and visibility for their path breaking work in the social sector through film. Earlier in her career, she co-founded Film Companion to strengthen credible cinema journalism in India and served as creative director of film based TV shows The Front Row and Star Verdict. During her decade at NDTV, she created and led flagship entertainment programming like Jeena Issi Ka Naam Hai, Nightout, Picture This and Cinema India while building enduring industry relationships nationwide. A committed advocate for gender equity, she founded Maitri: The Female First Collective in partnership with Amazon Prime Video, and in 2024 was invited to speak at the Opening Dinner of the prestigious GEM Conference at Harvard University alongside Ashley Judd. Smriti is often engaged when projects are preparing to expand their footprint through festival premieres, global distribution conversations or broader strategic repositioning. Her brand rests on the foundation of credibility, benchmark setting work ethic and deep pan India and global relationships within the entertainment industry.
