🎬 Shruti Rya Ganguly, Filmmaker, Writer, & Producer
Her first film = a homework assignment. 🤯
Welcome to Trailblazers! I’m Simi Shah, and in this newsletter, I dive deep into the journeys of trailblazing South Asian leaders. Listen to our podcast on Apple, Spotify, or any major podcast platform and discover more exciting content on our Instagram and LinkedIn.
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OUR SEASON 6 FINALE: 🎬 Shruti Rya Ganguly, Filmmaker, Writer, & Producer
For our Season 6 Finale, Simi welcomes Shruti Rya Ganguly: award-winning Filmmaker, Producer, and Writer.
In 2017, Shruti started honto88, a production company that works in a variety of formats — from narrative and documentary features to series and branded content. She launched it with a narrative feature produced by Keanu Reeves. She has directed videos for Google, Unilever, Nike, and Chanel. Recently, she also co-founded Prism Entertainment to craft South-Asian focused films and television series.
Shruti’s latest work: she directed TRIPPED UP, starring Leah Lewis, Ariel Winter, and Vanessa Williams. She sold DEATHSPA, a psychological horror film to Sony International, and is currently writing SECRET DAUGHTER for Amazon Studios, a drama starring Priyanka Chopra. Her coming-of-age feature comedy, PRIYA, AT 12 is in production. On the T.V. front, Shruti is a writing-EP on the series BROWN BABY set up at Apple UK, and has been developing FLOSSY, a half-hour with comedian Kerry Coddett. Her films have premiered at major festivals, including Sundance, Venice, Tribeca, and Berlin — namely, Spirit-winner H. and the Nora Ephron Prize-winner INITIALS SG.
Previously, Shruti worked closely with James Franco on numerous films, and also worked at NYLON, MTV, and Conde Nast, producing Vogue’s famed 73 Questions series. She served in President Obama’s ECCO (Entertainment Creative Collaborative Outreach) program, where she worked alongside 30 leaders in entertainment. Additionally, Shruti is a published writer and the co-founder of the Resistance Revival Chorus. She received her Bachelor's degree from Northwestern University, and earned her dual MFA/MBA from NYU. She hails from India, by way of Oman.
Read episode excerpts below (edited for clarity + brevity) 👇
Simi: While pursuing your MBA and MFA at NYU, you meet classmate, actor and filmmaker James Franco. You start collaborating with him on projects for his production house and this opens the door to films like The Color of Time and Yosemite. How did that collaboration come about?
Shruti: James Franco was the year ahead of me, and he was going to be teaching a class on adapting poetry for the screen. I really wanted to take the class, but it was full. I was too late. I remember asking a professor how on earth I could even sit in on the course. And they had given me James's faculty email. I thought, ‘A Hollywood actor is certainly not going to respond.’ But I wrote to him about how I love poetry, how much it's meant to me, and why. James wrote back and said, ‘There is no space, however I am looking for a Teaching Assistant (TA), if you would consider being my TA.’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’
That semester, James had the rights to a collection of poetry by C.K. Williams, called Tar. The assignment he gave to the students was to take one of these poems and adapt it into a short 10-page script and to go out and make these short films. And then we realized that there were similar characters, recurring themes, and what felt like different scenes from one person's life.We realized we could make this into a feature. And so, it became this very ambitious homework assignment, where we ended up really rethinking it as a feature film.
We went to Detroit because we had a couple of weeks off from school. It was the first movie I produced. We had two units shooting simultaneously. It had 12 directors. It was very low budget. I even drove one of the equipment trucks on one point from New York to Detroit. It wasn’t very glamorous. And it was a very, very hard experience. But we made this movie this wild, wacky movie that stars James, Mila Kunis, Jessica Chastain, Zach Braff, Bruce Campbell, and Henry Hopper. We got Cinetic media to be our sales representative and Starz as the distributor. And it's crazy to think that The Color of Time was just really a homework assignment that we somehow made happen.
Simi: After graduating, you continue working in production, and also take up roles at MTV and Conde Nast. Eventually, in 2017, you founded honto88, your own production company that has since ventured into various formats — from narrative and documentary to series and branded content. What motivated you to take that leap?
Shruti: I was building a great career as a producer, and was getting a lot of different opportunities. I started working with another duo, Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia, who I still collaborate with very closely, and our films went to Venice, Sundance, Berlin, and so on. But I also wanted to direct myself and those opportunities weren’t really coming my way. I was constantly being told: ‘You're a producer. You can't do both. You can't do it all.’
And so, in a way, I had to start a production company to reframe things for myself — where the company could really represent the things that I wanted to make while also supporting the things that my friends wanted to make. And so, I remember I was producing a movie called Green Dolphin by writer-director Chris Keneally and Keanu Reeves was our Executive Producer. There was an announcement that was going out about it. And all the other producers — all white men — had production companies, and there was just me listed as myself. I thought, ‘Dang it, I need a production company.’ So I created one. And suddenly, my company name gets announced in The Hollywood Reporter. I didn't even have a website. I think I bought a website domain and wrote, ‘Coming soon.’ And I thought, ‘I guess I have a company now.’
Shruti has no shortage of projects and purpose — ever passionate about using film, writing, and music to tell compelling stories. Learn all about her own story in our Season 6 Finale — out now on Apple, Spotify, and our website!