The 1497 Features Lab is designed to change South Asian representation in the American entertainment market.
Placement
Genre
Format
Representation Status
Finalists
AmeriGirl
Private
Finalist
Feature
· Comedy
· 91 Pages
This logline was hidden by the writer.
AMERIGIRL SHORT FILM (2021):
https://www.nobudge.com/videos/amerigirl
CRISTINA & VIOLETTA
Private
Finalist
Feature
· Drama
· 99 Pages
Inspired by the true story of two young Roma sisters whose tragic deaths sent political and moral firestorms across Europe, CRISTINA & VIOLETTA follows their lives, struggles and dreams in the Roma slums of Naples during the weeks before.
No bio available.
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INTRODUCTION TO CHEMISTRY
Private
Finalist
Feature
· Comedy
· 115 Pages
In a bid to redefine their social status, three Indian American high school chemistry prodigies launch a covert matchmaking service to spark romantic reactions among their classmates. However, they find themselves entangled in a web of chaotic teenage hearts as they learn that love may be the most unpredictable element of all.
No bio available.
Finalist
Feature
· Fantasy
· 101 Pages
A lonely, undocumented Nepali man stuck in the US, longing to go home for his beloved sister's wedding, discovers a mysterious door at his Oakland gas station workplace that teleports him to his hometown. He reunites with family and friends, only to find people on both sides want to cross over.
Los Angeles, California
Rajendra Thakurathi is a Nepali writer-director based in Los Angeles. He got his early storytelling roots from Pixar, BuzzFeed, and The New York Times. His first feature film, Six Feet, was executive produced by Adam Somer (Monkeyman, Ghostbusters: Afterlife). His latest mockumentary short, Impulses, was released through Omeleto.
He has a knack ...
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Finalist
Feature
· Thriller
· 115 Pages
When the livelihood of her yoga studio is threatened by a thriving yoga influencer industry, Nalini's struggle for self-worth sends her into a destructive downward spiral.
No bio available.
Finalist
Feature
· Thriller
· 100 Pages
When a struggling actress's desperate quest for stardom leads her to infiltrate a famous director's private life, her unhinged commitment to her craft threatens to destroy her career, her relationships, and her grasp on reality.
Los Angeles, California
Sejal is an award-winning TV and film writer who has experience in both Hollywood and Bollywood writer rooms; her credits include Power Book III: Raising Kanan, Tooth Pari (Netflix), and Bandish Bandits (Amazon). She enjoys writing dramas that explore darker themes - mental health, addiction, and grief - with a hint of absurdity. Her stories center ...
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Semifinalists
Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 92 Pages
In post-Roe Texas, married and unexpectedly pregnant Indian-American, Amal, falls in love with Charulata, a new bride from India, undoing their carefully constructed lives.
New York City, NY
Dini Parayitam is a writer/filmmaker based in NYC. She has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in Fiction Writing (2014). After working on novels for a decade, she came to writing screenplays as a form of collaboration with other passionate artists.
She has written/directed the short film "All Your Yesterdays" and written/co-produced the short ...
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Amoeba
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 89 Pages
A popular teen under the social status microscope battles with her sexuality and living up to others’ expectations of her, while working towards her rigorous college dance application process.
Los Angeles, CA
Noreen Quadir is a screenwriter and actor based in Los Angeles and a local hire in New York. Driven by a desire for a more just world, she loves telling stories that celebrate the diversity of the human experience and amplify underrepresented voices from a place of curiosity and joy.
Additionally, her stories include characters who are figuring ...
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Semifinalist
Feature
· Comedy
· 90 Pages
Two high school outcasts unwittingly find themselves in debt to a violent biker gang. They devise an outlandish plan with an unlikely crew to pull off the ultimate heist before time runs out and they're forced to pay with their lives.
Calgary, Alberta, CA
I had a realization a few years ago that life is short and I should do what I love.
Since then, I have written and produced two short films and several commercials.
I just finished my first comedy feature which has been positively received. I am currently writing my second feature which is a drama/action.
Chikna
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 105 Pages
No logline available.
No bio available.
Semifinalist
Feature
· Historical
· 96 Pages
In 1907, a stubborn Punjabi immigrant sets out to win the American wrestling welterweight title in order to earn the resources and respect necessary for his community’s survival.
Los Angeles, CA
Kevin Ramlal is a Canadian-born, Texas-raised South Asian comedy writer with roots in Trinidad as well as Tanzania. Raised with multiple cultural influences, Kevin focuses on characters searching for confidence and a sense of belonging, with humor and heart. Most recently, Kevin staffed on ABC’s Not Dead Yet after participating in the 2023 Disney Wr...
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DOS BROS FORCE - Feature
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 108 Pages
In a struggling immigrant household, a young girl’s passion for an arcade game becomes the unlikely catalyst for her fractured family to find connection, healing, and the courage to redefine their American Dream.
Vista, CA
A Writer, Director, Producer, and Visual Effects (VFX) Supervisor, Kalyan Sura is a virtuoso storyteller who creates live-action and animation content featuring South Asians and other minorities.
After a decade at the highest levels of the VFX industry, working on independent films and blockbusters like ‘HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2’ and ‘POKÉMON: ...
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Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 100 Pages
Amidst breaking news of a sting operation involving her abusive husband, a defiant Silicon Valley homemaker heads to a reunion with close friends from school, to break free of her cultural trappings.
Bay Area, CA
SHRUTI TEWARI is an actor turned writer and director of cultural dramas and comedies, highlighting an Indian immigrant’s perspective. A Remi award winning filmmaker, she has written and directed three short films. Her acting projects range from a Bollywood blockbuster to numerous award-winning independent films. A graduate of Columbia University, sh...
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Garland
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Horror
· 93 Pages
When Sita refuses to perform the last crematory rites for her late sister, her sister’s
ghost comes back to haunt her in full force.
Coding is my 9-5, creative writing is my 5-9, but only coffee is my 24/7.
Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 124 Pages
A young Muslim boxer from New Jersey fights for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team before the public fallout from 9/11 forces him to abandon his American Dream.
Surrey, British Columbia, CA
Gur-Inder Singh is a writer/director from Surrey, Canada—a multi-ethnic suburb of Vancouver. He's worked as an Assistant Director in the Bollywood industry with plans to go Hollywood as a Writer and Director. He's received multiple award for his two spec scripts BEGUM and GODSON, including an AFM Pitch Conference Win in 2021 and 2023 as well as a Ne...
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Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 92 Pages
On her journey into adulthood, a devout Muslim woman navigates the delicate balance between her family’s expectations, sexual fulfillment, and the idea of marrying for love.
Crawley, West Sussex, GB
Farook Qais, pronounced “case,” is a British-born he/him of South Asian heritage. He writes film and TV, winning Screenwriting competitions in the US and the UK. While he's taken on Script Consultancy and participated in Video Editing, Farook's concentrated ambition is to continue writing emotive scripts with broad audience appeal. His strength is t...
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Holy Turban
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Comedy
· 108 Pages
A rushed encounter with a Sikh man, whose cryptic mention of miracles, sends a tenacious Easter day parade reporter on a journey through time to unravel the mystery behind a Sikh boy winning a Bible trivia contest in the deep South.
Gurjot Anand
No bio available.
Hum
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 86 Pages
No logline available.
No bio available.
Jaal-Saaz ( The Actor)
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 98 Pages
A parentified child actor begins to rebel as her controlling mother loses agency over her, but a deeper dive into their troubled past reveals a dark secret that irrevocably binds them together.
Lahore, Punjab, PK
No bio available.
Kabootar
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 92 Pages
In an old monument of Delhi, an illegal
squatter, a lost child, and a Japanese
tourist form an unexpected bond
through an ancient ritual of writing
letters. When the authorities threaten
to end the ritual and take over the
monument, the three must come
together to defend their home and this
new-found family.
New Delhi, Delhi, IN
Ishan is a graduate of the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute in Calcutta, India. His short films- The God of Panic Street (2019), A Season of Mangoes (2022) have screened at festivals all over the world including Filmfest Dresden, IFF Stuttgart, Dharamshala, and bagged several awards including the ‘Cinema Experimenta Award' in India last year...
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Semifinalist
Feature
· Family
· 99 Pages
When the sudden death of his father leads to the adoption of a half-sister he never knew he had, a scrappy music producer must balance his idealistic dreams while learning to take responsibility as a guardian, all before the biggest showcase of his career.
Los Angeles, CA
Nerris (pronounced like “Ferris”) is a first-generation writer, director, and musician who crafts budget-conscious musical feature films reflective of his mixed Latin and Asian upbringing.
His expertise in visual storytelling comes from a wide range of experiences — crewing on 300+ productions, leading digital strategy for a historic L.A. electi...
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LONGING
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 114 Pages
No logline available.
Palo Alto, CA
No bio available.
Men of a Certain Age
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 96 Pages
A family of three men struggle to get along on the 5th anniversary of their mother’s death.
No bio available.
Moment to Moment
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Other
· 120 Pages
No logline available.
No bio available.
Semifinalist
Feature
· Comedy
· 96 Pages
A gay best friend must find a way to set-up his co-dependent girl-friend with an eligible bachelor way out of her league. Think Hitch meets Train-wreck.
Burbank, California
Ushmey Chakraborty is a filmmaker/screenwriter. His screenplays have been acclaimed by the Academy Nicholl Fellowship, Austin, Screencraft, WeScreenplay and Scriptapalooza. His work deals with telling the stories of the brown-gay-immigrant experience. He writes comedies and all its sub-genres.
ODIUM
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 96 Pages
A haunted Sikh cop and his idealistic partner unravel a child’s disappearance—only to uncover a brutal family secret that forces him to confront the hatred that stole his past and threatens his future.
Houston, TX
I'm Harsh Mahadeshwar. I moved from Mumbai to Lubbock, Texas, to study at Texas Tech University, where I rediscovered my love for storytelling through student films. Later, I joined Harvard Medical School, continuing my scientific work while secretly pursuing my cinematic dreams. I explored various roles in filmmaking, eventually starting my own fil...
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Semifinalist
Feature
· Horror
· 91 Pages
After a grieving couple has their fourth miscarriage, they give up trying to conceive and adopt a cute shelter dog instead, only to discover that the newest member of their family is actually possessed by a demon.
Los Angeles, CA
Persians haven't been relevant since they were mutants in Zack Snyder's 300… until now. Amir Mo is a Persian/Iranian-American writer whose debut feature, received over 1800% ROI and features comedy vets from Saturday Night Live, Borat, & MADtv. He was recently named a Semifinalist in the NBC TV Writers Program where one executive called his pilot "b...
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Remember Ivy Court
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Horror
· 105 Pages
After fleeing a personal tragedy, an Indian immigrant must confront the ghosts of his past when he discovers the house he’s renovating is haunted.
No bio available.
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Semifinalist
Feature
· Thriller
· 100 Pages
When a grieving doctor forebodes the gruesome murder of a novelist who received his dead wife’s heart, he must confront the limits of his sanity as he races to find the killer and stop the murder before it happens on Halloween.
Irvine, CA
Shiva Ramanathan discovered the magic of storytelling when an egg hit him squarely during his stage debut. It kickstarted an adventure even Indiana Jones would admire. From a degree in Communication to community theater, Shiva discovered a companion in writing through life’s exhilarating highs and soul-crushing lows.
While his screenplays have garn...
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Semifinalist
Feature
· Sci-fi
· 92 Pages
Aariz, a struggling single dad and widower, is forced to confront his grief when a black hole randomly opens in the sky and his late wife Sarah falls out of it. The only problem is, Sarah has no memory of who she is or where she came from. As Aariz helps Sarah regain her lost memories, he must confront his own pain, while also grappling with the pos...
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Oakland, CA
Asad Durrani is a writer/director/actor and a SFFILM FilmHouse Resident. He was a finalist in The Black List Feature Lab and ranked in the top 7% in the Academy Nicholl Fellowship. He was a semifinalist for The Black List Artist Development Fellowship/Stowe Story Labs, Pillars Artist Fellowship, 1497 Features Lab, and Austin Film Festival.
After mo...
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Semifinalist
Feature
· Horror
· 106 Pages
On a trip to the Yorkshire Dales to scatter her fathers' ashes, Sonia Singh is kidnapped and held captive in a remote village where a cult have recreated British occupied India.
Southall, County (optional), GB
I am a writer and director living in London, England and have made various short film projects and have written feature film and pilot screenplays. I have BA and MA film degrees from London.
My last short film was a script selected for a scheme in association with the Italian Society of Cinematographers, to travel to Catania, Sicily and shoot the...
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Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 102 Pages
A South Indian-American photographer must balance her career aspirations with caring for her father after a debilitating stroke, learning to navigate cultural expectations while finding her voice.
Los Angeles, CA
Anita is an actress/writer who can be seen on Doom Patrol (HBO Max) and in the film India Sweets & Spices (Hulu), which made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Her first film as a writer "Arranged, " starring Rizwan Manji, which went to the Rhode Island International Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, and Philadel...
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Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 112 Pages
After the sudden death of their mother, Trisha and 12-year-old Ash find a way to process their loss through an unexpected source – science.
Los Angeles, CA
I write funny scripts about grief and identity, often with some ghosts thrown in. Originally from Mumbai, India, I recently graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with an MFA in Dramatic Writing. I'm currently based in LA and working at Nickelodeon.
The Christmas Letter
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Comedy
· 116 Pages
VJ instantly regrets professing his love to his best friend Rachel in a Christmas letter. So, he hatches a plan to fly to her
hometown so he can break into her house to get it back before she reads the letter on Christmas Day.
Marina Del Rey, CA
No bio available.
Semifinalist
Feature
· Comedy
· 109 Pages
When his US visa expires and he becomes undocumented, Majeed finds an illegal way to become legal again.
Atlanta, Georgia
Asad Farooqui's feature script, BIN won the Islamic Scholarship Fund National Film Grant. Farooqui's feature script, The Immigration Game, won first place at the Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Contest while his pilot script, TIB, was a finalist at the Nashville Film Festival.
Farooqui received his MFA from Columbia University and is a film lectur...
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Semifinalist
Feature
· Thriller
· 121 Pages
When Jesus Christ is murdered by poisoning during the Last Supper, the Twelve Apostles - trapped by a torrential downpour - turn on one another with wild accusations and theories to identify the killer... until it falls on an unlikely detective to put all the pieces together.
Los Angeles, California
Nishanth has always wanted to be a nepo baby. Unfortunately, he isn't one.
He is a plucky young filmmaker from India, now based in LA, with a degree in Film Production & Philosophy from Loyola Marymount University. His work has received acclaim - from his short film airing on PBS to his co-written whodunnit feature winning the Grand Prize in the ...
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The Long Jazeera
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 83 Pages
After the matriarch of a Pakistani American family receives a terminal cancer prognosis, the prodigal eldest son returns home during a hurricane, bringing unresolved tensions within the family to the surface.
Brooklyn, NY
Saleem Nasir Gondal (he/him) is a filmmaker based in New York. His work explores the power of language and movement to portray the intimate lives of underrepresented communities onscreen. His work is supported by Focus Features, The Black List, The National Board of Review, The Gotham, Pillars Fund, and MPAC Hollywood Bureau and more.
Semifinalist
Feature
· Horror
· 117 Pages
A group of documentary filmmakers visit a sleepy winter wonderland where they discover a deadly curse.
Atlanta, Georgia
Vibhu is a screenwriter and producer based in Atlanta, GA; a graduate of NYU's Department of Dramatic Writing and passionate advocate for human stories told with flair.
Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 92 Pages
When his charismatic older cousin SARITA (34) comes to stay with the family for mysterious reasons, aspiring fiction writer NIKHIL (17) makes a shocking discovery about her that only fuels their growing connection — and intertwines their fates for years to come.
- Verified WGA Member
Los Angeles, California
Sachin Dharwadker is a screenwriter and director from Madison, WI currently based in Los Angeles. He is an alumnus of Sundance Ignite, the Sundance Episodic Lab, the New York Stage & Film Filmmakers’ Workshop, and the Sundance Talent Forum. He is currently developing a drama series with Starz and CBS Television Studios.
As a filmmaker, Sachin foc...
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Through The Grapevine (or India Nite)
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Thriller
· 78 Pages
In a tight-knit South Asian community in the rural Midwest, Reshma, feeling trapped by her own and her parents' expectations, agrees to an arranged marriage. But when her fiancé, the heir to a local agricultural company, dies mysteriously during the town's annual "India Nite" variety show, Reshma becomes the prime suspect. With the evidence stacked ...
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New York, NY
Currently an MFA in Dramatic Writing candidate at NYU (‘23,) Simran’s writing often involves magical realism and natural elements to explore love, grief, and identity. Most of her scripts center particularly unconventional South Asian/mixed women.
Truckstop
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Family
· 96 Pages
When 22-year-old Punjabi immigrant Jasleen gets dumped by her boyfriend in Los Angeles, she struggles between her ambitions to win him back and the desires of her domineering mother, who wants her to stay and oversee the remote desert truckstop they work at to support family in India.
Los Angeles, California
Molly Karna is a queer, Indian-American award-winning writer and director based in LA. Most recently, she directed the short film Truckstop, which won an audience award at Sikhlens Film Festival and earned the Best Pitch Award at USC’s First Look festival. Her short film The Rushing of the Sea earned numerous awards in film festivals, including Best...
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We Were Poets
Private
Semifinalist
Feature
· Drama
· 117 Pages
While traveling through the U.S. from Kuwait in 1990, a Pakistani family suddenly find themselves refugees as the first Gulf War breaks out. Told over three time periods (the 70s, the 90s, and present day), We Were Poets depicts the cost immigrant parents pay to give their children a life of comfort – often in exchange for their own health and happi...
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No bio available.
Mentees
Sonapur
Private
Mentee
Feature
· Horror
· 108 Pages
No logline available.
Pasadena, CA
No bio available.
Mentee
Feature
· Comedy
· 92 Pages
An insecure gay narcissist hires a film crew to document his run for college student council president.
Vancouver, BC, CA
Shakil Jessa (he/they) is a writer and producer specializing in character-driven comedies. Shakil’s coming-of-age series Love Me Back was developed at WarnerMedia. They also produced the upcoming feature film A Nice Indian Boy with Levantine Films and Wayfarer Studios which had its World Premiere at SXSW. They are currently the Writers' Assistant on...
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When We Were Sisters
Private
Mentee
Feature
· Drama
· 94 Pages
Three Muslim-American siblings are orphaned by their father’s murder. Through tenderness, lyricism, and an intimate portrayal of their betrayals of each other, we see them create their own version of family amid chaos, navigate through grief and their caretaker uncle’s cruelty, and learn how to stand on their own.
Fatimah Asghar
Los Angeles, CA
No bio available.
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