Dr Shilpi Gulati | Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Dr Shilpi Gulati

Assistant Professor
Mumbai Campus, Centre for Critical Media Praxis, School of Media and Cultural Studies

Qualification

BA English (Delhi University),

MA Media and Cultural Studies (Tata Institute of Social Sciences),

MPhil Theatre and Performance Studies (Jawaharlal Nehru University),

PhD Cinema Studies (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Contact

shilpi.gulati[at]tiss[dot]ac[dot]in

shilpi.gulati@tiss.ac.in

Shilpi Gulati is a filmmaker, scholar, and educator. Her artistic practices engage with feminist and queer narratives, visual and performing arts, and issues of identity, home, and nationhood in South Asia. She is a two-time recipient of the President's National Film Award in India for her documentaries "Qissa-e Parsi: The Parsi Story" (2014) and "Taala the Kunjee: Lock and Key" (2018). Shilpi has also been awarded the Fulbright Fellowship for her research at Columbia University, New York (2018-19), and the Getting Real Fellowship by the International Documentary Association, Los Angeles (2024-25) to develop research on contemporary documentary and to build a global, and peer-to-peer network of practitioners. Recently, Shilpi served as the Festival Director for the Digital Disruptions Film Festival 2024, an event focused on community-based collaborative media practices enabled by new media technologies. Her previous film and research work have been commissioned by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust, the Ministry of External Affairs, UNICEF, the American Jewish World Service, and the US Consulate.

Documentary History, Theory and Practice
Theatre and Performance
Media Industries
Film Festivals
Censorship and Activism
Community Media
Media Ethics
Visual and Public Cultures
Identity, Nation and Memory

Filmography:

Made to Feel (12 min) – experimental video exploring the possibilities of intimacy across borders and processes of artistic collaborations within regulated societies, 2021
Naach Bhikhari Naach (72 min) – a feature documentary on the folk performance tradition of launda naach and the legacy of Bhikhari Thakur, the “Shakespeare of Bhojpuri,” 2018
Taala Te Kunjee: Lock and Key (75 min) – a feature documentary based on wives of recovering addicts in Punjab, India, 2017
Qissa-e Parsi: The Parsi Story (26 min) – a short documentary on India’s smallest ethnic community, 2014
Dere To Delhi (30 min) – a short film on the oral histories of a refugee community from Dera Ismail Khan (Pakistan) that lives in Delhi, 2012
Inside Out (26 min) – a short documentary on women’s access to public space in India, 2010
There Are No Borders Here (11 min) – an experimental film focusing on borders, identity, and nationhood, 2009

Commissions:

Consulting Editor: Mirror, a feature documentary on acid attack survivors in India, 2021
Consulting Editor: Alice Boner Institute, Varanasi, for Patang – a video series documenting craftsmen and women of the city, 2020-21
Consulting Editor: Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), for their field action projects in Odisha and Rajasthan, India, 2020
Creative Director: Advocacy films on rural education in the state of Uttar Pradesh, UNICEF, 2017
Director: Towards Change: Training and Advocacy film on the rural development program in Bihar at Takshila Educational Society, India 2015
Director: See Something? Say Something, a documentary film on the role of theatre in action against gender-based violence, American Centre, Delhi, India, 2014
Director: Jagori, a series of training and advocacy films on the safety of women in public spaces, 2013
Director: Tisstory, five documentaries on the history of social science research and education in India, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, 2012

Writings:

Gulati, Shilpi 2022: “Our Films, Our History,” Indian Express, March 26, 2022
Gulati, Shilpi 2022: “A Difficult Year for The Indian Film Fraternity” FemAsia: Asian Women’s Journal, January 2022
Gulati, Shilpi. 2021.“Super Censorship of Cinema?” Economic and Political Weekly 51 (31): 8
Gulati, Shilpi. 2019. “Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, 2019: Action,” Media Practice & Education 20 (4): 390–92.
Gulati, Shilpi. 2017 “Book Review: Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar, A Fly in the Curry: Independent Documentary Film in India,” Social Change 47, no. 2 (June): 306–8.
Gulati, Shilpi. 2015, “Expression and Repression: Censorship and Challenges before Political Documentary Films in India,” Journal of Literature Studies, (January), New Delhi

Exploring Gendered Access to Digital Technologies among Resource-Poor Communities in Mumbai, funded by the American Jewish World Service, 2020-24

Digital Citizenship Among Youth in India: Expressions, Assertions, and Negotiations, supported by the American Jewish World Service (2023-24)

Lights, Camera and Action for Gender Equality: Promoting Gender in Popular Hindi Films, funded by Department of State, U.S. Mission to India, 2021-2023

Working with Video I - Introduction to Film and Video
Working with Video II - Documentary Filmmaking
Image Making I - Visual Cultures
Image Making II - Documentary History and Theory
Contemporary Indian Media Ecologies
Master's Final Media Project
Master's Final Research Project