Today we’d like to introduce you to Geeta Malik.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started writing at a very young age and haven’t stopped since. I grew up in Aurora, Colorado, on a steady diet of films ranging everywhere from Bollywood to Blazing Saddles. Even though I was clearly more excited about the arts, I did like a good little child of immigrants and went to school to become an engineer. I did two years hard time of Electrical Engineering at UC Irvine, but I was writing poems in the margins of my notebooks instead of listening to my physics lectures. After those two years, I came to my senses and switched my major to English. In my final year, in my final quarter, I took a screenwriting class, and that got me thinking about films and filmmaking as a possible career path.
After I graduated UCI, I moved to LA and worked as a grant writer for various nonprofits, trying to make ends meet, and taking on a million odd jobs in between. I also worked for a wonderful nonprofit called the MY HERO Project that allowed me to make short documentaries about people making a positive difference in the world. It was so satisfying having a camera in my hand and being able to tell a compelling visual story. I gradually realized I didn’t just want to write; I wanted to direct and to be able to translate the images I had in my head to the big screen.
So, I went to UCLA’s MFA program for directing and made several short films while there. Once I graduated, I formed my company, Shetani Films, and made a tiny feature called TROUBLEMAKER that played at several festivals, including Cinequest and the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. I then had two kids within 18 months of each other. While my kids were napping, I was writing my next feature, which won the Academy Nicholl Fellowship for Screenwriting, as well as the Austin Film Festival Feature Comedy Screenplay Award, both in 2016.
This past spring, I shot that feature film (formerly called DINNER WITH FRIENDS, now called INDIA SWEETS AND SPICES), in Atlanta. The film is currently in post-production and is scheduled for a late 2020/early 2021 release.
Has it been a smooth road?
The road to this moment has been insanely, extremely bumpy. Struggles have included, but are not limited to:
— Getting rejections from a million programs, institutes, festivals, and human beings. At least a decade of rejections (so far).
— Trying to get people to read my scripts.
— Trying to get represented so that people would read my scripts.
— Trying to get people to watch my films.
— Trying to get people to fund my films.
— Explaining to people that I’m not going to change my films to accommodate a “mainstream” audience. We all know what “mainstream” is code for.
— Worrying that I’m not good enough or smart enough and that I don’t belong in this industry. Lots of Imposter Syndrome.
— Trying to carve out enough time as both a mother and an artist, and worrying that I’m constantly failing at both.
— Trying to stay strong enough to know that I DO belong in this industry, despite all the setbacks, and when my courage fails me, trying to find a place in my house to sob in peace without my kids asking to play Legos.
Please tell us about Shetani Films.
Shetani Films is my production company, and my mission is to tell stories that uplift women, minorities, and marginalized communities. “Shetani” means mischief, and that’s what I hope to be known for – causing good trouble, being a gadfly, and taking on bigger issues in creative and subversive ways. I’m very proud of all the work I’ve done so far, and what sets my work apart is the undercurrent of anger and awareness in all my films. I hope to keep that up.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
There’s no better place than Los Angeles for my company. If you want to be a filmmaker, and you’re just starting out, this is the place to be.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shetanifilms.com
- Instagram: @shetanifilms
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shetanifilms/
- Twitter: @shetanifilms
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