Avani Deshpande
- Director
- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
Avani Deshpande is an Indian Filmmaker and Screenwriter currently based in Mumbai, India. An alumnus of the Post-Graduate Documentary Film Programme at the prestigious London College of Communication under University of Arts London;
She made her directorial debut with an episode in the critically acclaimed Netflix limited series 'Trial by Fire' (2023) which opened to great reviews, with Mike McCahill at Variety calling it "Searing.. one of Netflix India's best yet." and Shubhra Gupta from Indian Express calling it "Poignant". It also has a 100% critical and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Nominated in multiple categories at various awards, it won the 'Best Series - Critics' at Filmfare OTT awards (2024). She was also nominated for the Best Director(s) (Series) at the Filmfare OTT as well as the Critic's Choice Awards 2024. She was also a part of the Writing team on the entire series.
She was born to and is the only child of doctor parents in Nagpur, India. She began her fiction film career as a Script Supervisor and a Second Unit and Assistant Director working on films such as 'Tryst with Destiny' (2021) on Sony Liv India, and Yash Raj Films' 'Hichki' (2018) and Bulbul (2020) on Netflix among others.
Her creative pursuit is to investigate diverse facets of the human condition in the most intimate and visceral way. Striving to explore themes dealing with interpersonal relationships, childhood memories, mental health, self-realization and characters with rich inner lives, she aims to push technical boundaries to make material more philosophical than just a story witnessed remaining form agnostic. Interested in working in fiction as well as non-fiction, she believes that the 'story' should dictate the way it wants to be told.