Stylist Sapna Moti Bhavnani’s Makes Her Directorial Debut With Sindhustan

Jyothi Venkatesh

Renowned Celebrity Stylist Sapna Moti Bhavnani’s directorial debut Sindhustan has been chosen as an Official Selection at the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) taking place from 7^th to 12^th May 2019. As part of NYIFF, the film’s premiere screening will be held on Thursday May 9, 2019 at 6:00 pm, Auditorium 2 at Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave at 12th Street, NYC. The screening at AIFF will be held on May 11, 2019 at 5:15 pm at Aurora Cineplex. Both the screenings will be followed by a Q and A

Sindhustan is a fascinating exploration of the Sindhi community’s migration to India narrated through a series of extensively designed body tattoos, all of which are illustrated on Sapna Moti Bhavnani body. Through the documentary, Bhavnani attempts to also dwell into her roots and the history of the Sindhi community, which migrated in large numbers to India from Sindh during the India-Pakistan partition. The title Sindhustan also refers to the River Sindh, which is Asia’s largest river flowing through India and forms an important part of India’s history.The film is edited by Kabir Singh Chowdhry who had directed the MAMI 2018 Grand Jury Award winning mockumentary Mehsampur.

Sindhustan was inspired by an interesting conversation that occurred between Bhavnani and her maternal grandmother many years ago. Bhavnani was visiting India after staying in the U.S for 14 years. During this time, she was considerably inked, she was desperately trying to hide her inked body. Her grandmother who herself sported tattoos remarked “Sapna, you are so old fashioned”.Sapna was taken further aback when her grandmother said, “You know, when we first came as a human race, we didn’t have countries or governments, we lived in extended families and we all had our markings. We all looked like you. I’m happy to see to you are going back to our roots, your roots.”Bhavnani was surprised by this statement made by her grandmother as till then she believed the tattoos was her way of rebelling against the Indian culture.

She then set out to chronicle the Sindh community’s history and thus Sindhustan was born. The documentary includes several stories from India and Sindh. It also includes Bhavnani illustrating the Sindh community’s journey through the tattoos inked on her legs, which traces the history of the Sindh community. The tattoos on her legs are designed using the art forms Ajrak and Madhubani which originate from Sindh and India respectively.  Sindhustan derives its title from the Sindhu river. Also, when the Persians came to India, they had difficulty pronouncing ‘se’ and used the alphabet ‘h’ instead. So Sindhu became Hindu and the Hindustan was used instead of what could have been Sindhustan according to Bhavnani.

The celebrity stylist has worked on the documentary for a period of 7 years. During the process, she spoke to people from India as well as Pakistan hailing from the Sindh region, as she wanted to cover all the perspectives of its fascinating history. She also took the help of her friends from Pakistan for shooting footage of the Sindh. And thus, the documentary Sindhustan was finally made.

Sapna Bhavnani said, “Sindhustan comes from a very personal space. I wanted to chronicle the history and heritage of the Sindhi community so that their legacy can be passed on to newer generations. And thus, Sindhustan was born.I am really glad that the film has been chosen for NYIFF 2019. It is a great platform to tell our story to the world and introduce them to history of the Sindhi community who were part of the largest migration to be ever witnessed. I am eagerly looking forward to the audience’s reaction to the film and hope they embrace it wholeheartedly.”Sapna has naturally assumed poster-child status as a powerful female figure. She traverse’s mainstream success with just as much ease as she skirts the underground youth art & culture movement. Ageless, fearless and forever metamorphosing in her endeavors, Sapna has recently begun giving her celebrity-hood the voice of an activist.

Just recently Sapna was awarded the “IBelieve” award and the “FemEmpowerment” Award for her work with ex sex workers by starting a free hair academy called Path.Currently Sapna is writing a book tentatively titled “Chapter One,” The Creative Producer for award-winning film Mehsampur, and starting the festival journey with her directorial debut documentary called “Sindhustan.” Sindhustan was picked as one of the 24 films to pitch at DocEdge Kolkata where it won The Griffith Film School Award.Actor, spoken word artist, hair stylist, writer, director, producer- Sapna embodies it all as a visionary and change-maker.The rest, like they say, is her story.

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News,  Sindhustan, Sapna Moti Bhavnani