Biography
Sooni Taraporevala, a director, screenwriter, and photographer, recently created a nine-episode series for Amazon Prime, acting as creator, director, showrunner, co-producer, and co-writer. "WAACK GIRLS" is set for a global release in 2024.
In 2020, she wrote and directed "YEH BALLET," featuring Julian Sands. Commissioned by Netflix as a flagship direct-to-digital feature, the film received critical acclaim and earned praise from Reed Hastings and Salman Rushdie.
Her directorial debut, "LITTLE ZIZOU," garnered the National Award from the Indian government along with ten international awards.
Taraporevala’s first screenplay, "SALAAM BOMBAY!," initiated her longstanding collaboration with acclaimed director-producer Mira Nair. The film was nominated for an Academy Award, won over twenty-five international awards, and earned Taraporevala the Lillian Gish Award from Women in Film, Los Angeles.
Her second screenplay, "MISSISSIPPI MASALA," also directed by Mira Nair and starring Denzel Washington, won her the Osella Award for Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival. The film was restored and re-released theatrically in the US in 2022.
Additional screenwriting credits include "THE NAMESAKE," adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel; "SUCH A LONG JOURNEY," based on Rohinton Mistry’s book, which earned her a Genie nomination from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television; "MY OWN COUNTRY," adapted from Dr. Abraham Verghese’s work; and "DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR," a biographical film based on extensive historical research.
Born and raised in Bombay, India, she earned a scholarship to Harvard University, where she studied English Literature, Film, and Photography, and met classmate Mira Nair. She holds a BA from Harvard and an MA in Cinema Studies from New York University.
Taraporevala authored the influential photography book "PARSIS: A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY," now out of print and considered a collector’s item. First published by her company Good Books in 2000, a second edition was co-published with Overlook Press, NY, in 2004. Her second photography book, "HOME IN THE CITY, BOMBAY 1977–MUMBAI 2017," was released by HarperCollins in 2017 with forewords by Salman Rushdie and Pico Iyer; a second edition is forthcoming.
She has held several solo photography exhibitions in Mumbai and Delhi and participated in group shows at prestigious venues including the Tate Modern and Photographer’s Gallery in London, The Met in New York, and the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. Her work is part of collections worldwide, including the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
A member of the Writers Guild of America since 1988, Taraporevala was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honors, by the President of India in 2014. In 2017, she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
