Sister Act

Filmmaker, actor, writer, activist—Vaishnavi Sundar plays all these roles with élan. But the one she plays best is that of an unapologetic feminist. Nikita Sawant chats with the multifaceted woman

- Nikita Sawant

She is all about women helping each other out. It’s for this simple reason that Chennai-based filmmaker Vaishnavi Sundar started Women Making Films in 2015, a not-for-profit community that helps women filmmakers, actors, screenplay writers, editors, cinematographers and sound designers network and collaborate with each other. With 166 members across 18 countries, her ‘little’ community is doing some good work. Sundar herself has created short films like Pava, which portrays the relationship between a young girl and a barber, and The Catalyst, which talks about moral dilemmas. These films, among others, have been screened at film festivals such as the 2015 Asian Women’s Film Festival in Delhi, the 2015 International Short Film Festival in Bangalore, the 2017 London Feminist Film Festival, and The HeForShe Vienna Gender Equality Short Film Day, Austria 2018. Over to Sundar, who talks about her love for celluloid and why she believes women helping women is the only way to change things.

Tell us about your early life.

I was born and brought up in a suburb called Avadi in Chennai. I was always more interested in extracurricular activities in school. Being confined to a classroom felt limiting. In school, they taught us English too in Tamil (