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Independent producer Uday Jhunjhunwala has unveiled the establishment of a fund, fiscally sponsored by Desipina Productions, for film, theater, prose and poetry projects centered on international human rights and children’s welfare during South Asian House’s programming at the Tribeca Festival.

The fund was among several projects that gained momentum as South Asian House concluded its third consecutive year of programming at the festival, partnering with the Islamic Scholarship Fund (Isf) and Arab Film and Media Institute (Afmi) to spotlight the need for authentic representation in film.

One of the highlights of the programming was a panel at the AT&T Untold Stories Lounge, curated by Rohi Mirza Pandya, founder of South Asian House/Box Office Guru Media. Moderated by Shruti Ganguly, the conversation featured panelists Aizzah Fatima from Isf and Maya Labban from Afmi. The event opened with a video message from Alana Hadid of Watermelon Pictures, who...

Uttera Singh’s Pinch (2025) arrives as a confident first feature from a multi-hatted creator who writes, directs and plays Maitri, a young travel-vlogger grappling with an assault by her own landlord. Set in a dusty western Indian town, the film unfolds within a cramped apartment complex and spills into a vibrant Hindu festival sequence.

Singh opens with a startling public attack—an unsuspecting guest accused by Maitri of violating her—and then rewinds twenty-four hours, tracking how everyday interactions among neighbors, relatives and festival pilgrims build toward riotous retaliation.

This social dramedy balances wry humor with mounting tension as Maitri navigates patriarchal strictures and her own thirst for justice. Singh’s tight script clocks in at just 83 minutes, moving briskly from hallway confrontations to ritual processions with minimal detours.

The result is an invitation to global audiences to observe small-town India through a lens that alternates between wry observation and emotional intensity,...

Set in smalltown western India, Uttera Singh’s directorial debut “Pinch” (in which the writer-director also stars) unfolds with propulsive rhythms and a bleakly humorous tone. Its subject matter — a young woman dealing with being sexually assaulted by an older neighbor and family friend — ought not to make for raucous subject matter. However, Singh commands both sides of the camera with confidence, even if her storytelling veers toward tying too neat a bow on discomforting material.

“Pinch” opens in medias res with a politically charged occurrence: a crowd at a Hindu festival turns on a man and attacks him for reasons yet unknown, resulting in an act of mob vigilantism — an all-too-common event in modern India. But the movie’s focus isn’t so much the zeitgeist that yields these public beatings, but rather, the strange and amusing way that a young woman present in the crowd, Maitri (Singh), uses...

A large family enters a crowded train car. They spread out — busying themselves finding seats, settling in, placing luggage — when the youngest adult woman feels the unwelcome hand of a passing stranger. She whips around, but the man has already disappeared into the crowd, and when she tells a trusted female relative, the result is instinctive disgust, but only briefly.

“That just happens.”

This is not exactly a scene from Uttera Singh’s “Pinch,” but similar enough and entirely true. Her debut feature and 2025 Tribeca Festival premiere takes on a small piece of a big topic, delivering not only a gripping and nuanced narrative but an astutely told directing effort.

Writer and director Singh plays Maitri, whose life takes a sharp turn when her landlord gropes her on a bus and she retaliates in kind. Soon, the incident involves Maitri’s mother, their neighbors, and the small community living in their building,...

The South Asian House initiative, which aims to highlight, recognize and appreciate South Asians in film and television, has partnered with the Islamic Scholarship Fund to present programming at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, marking a significant collaboration for South Asian, Arab and Muslim representation in the entertainment industry.

The partnership will present a series of panels, mixers and cultural events during festival week, with support from the Brown Girl Clubhouse, a community platform for South Asian women. Programming is designed to champion representation in film, television and media while creating spaces for connection and creative celebration.

Key events include a June 3 filmmakers event presented by the Arab Film and Media Institute at MadamJi, and a June 4 “Filmmakers & chai” gathering at the Brown Girl Clubhouse.

Industry talks will feature South Asian House founder and Box Office Guru Media’s Rohi Mirza Pandya, Academy member Hemal Trivedi, entertainment attorney Maaha Khan, Arab Film...

The finalists of this year’s ShortList Film Festival joined TheWrap founder and editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman Wednesday at the IMAX Headquarters to discuss their short films, which were wildly varied in both their artistic styles and the challenges that came with making them. Among them was Uttara Singh, who won ShortList’s first Student Award for “Fanny Pack,” a comedy starring her as an aspiring photographer trying to get on a flight to New York while being pursued by her disapproving father (Brian George; “The Big Bang Theory”). Singh talked about shooting the film at Bob Hope Airport as a Mfa student.

Project Name: The Fob And I season two

Asking For: $10,000 on Seed & Spark

Amount Raised Thus Far (At Time Of Post): $9,408

Days Remaining In Campaign (At Time Of Post): 1. Hurry now!

Description: In many TV shows, South Asian representation boils down to a single brown character. Even if that character's personality avoids the typical stereotypes associated with South Asians (e.g. nerdiness), she's still just one person, and cannot adequately represent the billions of South Asians who live across the world.

Enter The Fob And I. Meenakshi Ramamurthy's web series, produced by Noopur Sinha, is a loving, personal portrait of the Indian-American experience as seen through the eyes of two characters who share the same skin color but vary wildly in terms of their personalities. Sita (Shefali Deshay) is a boisterous, Americanized Angeleno, while Jisha (Uttera Singh), as the show's title implies, is fresh off the boat.

The open nature of web series production gives minorities who are otherwise underrepresented in media a chance to speak their minds. The latest example of this trend is The Fob and I, in which creator Meenakshi Ramamurthy uses a pair of dynamic characters to explore Indian culture in America.

The two protagonists of The Fob and I are Sita (Shefali Deshay) and Jisha (Uttera Singh). Sita is an Indian-American will a distinct L.A. vibe, while Jisha, who is Fresh Off the Boat and not well-acclimated to American culture, is the titular "Fob." Most of the series' comedy comes from the odd couple relationship between Jisha and Sita; in one episode, for example, the two women argue over the American interpretation of chai.

Beyond its comedic stylings, The Fob and I also provides a significant amount of heart, and as Sita and Jisha trade barbs, they also learn about each other and their own identities.