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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Short description|Indian film director}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{BLP sources| date= September 2015}}{{External links|date=April 2020}}
}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sooni Taraporevala
| image = Sooni Taraporevala.jpg
| alt = Sooni Taraporevala image
| caption = Sooni Taraporevala in 2010
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1957}}
| birth_place = [[Mumbai]]
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality = Indian
| known_for =
| years_active = 1988–present
| occupation = screenwriter, film director, photographer
|
}}
'''Sooni Taraporevala''' (born 1957) is an Indian screenwriter, photographer and filmmaker who is the screenwriter of ''[[Mississippi Masala]]'', ''[[The Namesake (film)|The Namesake]]'' and Oscar-nominated ''[[Salaam Bombay!]]'' (1988), all directed by [[Mira Nair]].<ref>{{cite news |title=From Hollywood Back to Bombay|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/12/style/12iht-soon.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=12 October 1994 |first=Alexandra |last=Viets}}</ref> She also adapted Rohinton Mistry's novel ''Such A Long Journey''<ref>{{Citation|title=Such a Long Journey (Rohinton Mistry and Sturla Gunnarsson)|date=2017-03-02|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315252704-19|work=Images of Idiocy|pages=205–224|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9781315252704-19|isbn=978-1-315-25270-4|access-date=2020-12-06}}</ref> ''(2000)'' wrote the films ''Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar'' her directorial debut ''[[Little Zizou]]'' as well as her latest film ''[[Yeh Ballet]]''<ref>{{cite news |author1=R.M. Vijayakar |title=Sooni Taraporevala’s ‘Yeh Ballet’ Nominated for Flyx Filmfare Awards |url-status=live |url=https://www.indiawest.com/entertainment/bollywood/sooni-taraporevala-s-yeh-ballet-nominated-for-flyx-filmfare-awards/article_800c263c-33ff-11eb-a1e8-97cc926f6f6e.html |access-date=3 July 2023 |work=India West |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202112049/https://www.indiawest.com/entertainment/bollywood/sooni-taraporevala-s-yeh-ballet-nominated-for-flyx-filmfare-awards/article_800c263c-33ff-11eb-a1e8-97cc926f6f6e.html |archive-date=December 2, 2020 |language=en}}</ref> (2020) A [[Netflix]] Original that she wrote and directed.

Taraporevala wrote the screenplay for and directed her first feature film, Little Zizou (2007), an ensemble piece set in [[Mumbai]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Serious Laugh Junkie |url=http://www.tehelka.com/story_main41.asp?filename=hub070309the_serious.asp |volume=6 |issue=9 |date=7 March 2009 |publisher=[[Tehelka]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100630181553/http://www.tehelka.com/story_main41.asp?filename=hub070309the_serious.asp |archive-date=30 June 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Little Zizou, an insider's view to Parsi community|url=http://ibnlive.in.com/news/little-zizou-an-insiders-view-to-parsi-community/86382-8.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111165217/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/little-zizou-an-insiders-view-to-parsi-community/86382-8.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 January 2012 |publisher=[[CNN-IBN]] |date=27 February 2009 }}</ref> This film explores issues facing the [[Parsi]] community to which she belongs. It went on to win the Silver Lotus Award (2009) at the National Film Awards, India, for Best Film on Family Values.<ref>{{Cite news|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/cinema/President-confers-56th-National-Film-Awards/article16577085.ece|title=President confers 56th National Film Awards |date=19 March 2010 |last1=Ramachandran |first1=Smriti Kak }}</ref>

She was awarded the [[Padma Shri]] by [[Government of India]] in 2014.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url = http://www.hindustantimes.com/art-and-culture/life-is-all-about-taking-risks-says-filmmaker-author-sooni-taraporevala/story-nSvKqc7EJbSVvt699bEqvO.html|title = 'Life's all about taking risks' : Filmmaker-author Sooni Taraporevala|last = Das|first = Soma |date=16 October 2015 |work=[[Hindustan Times]] |access-date=19 October 2015 }}</ref> She is a member of the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]]. Her photographs are in the permanent collections of the [[National Gallery of Modern Art]] (NGMA) in Delhi and the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York.

==Early life and education==
Taraporevala was born to a [[Parsi]] family in Mumbai in 1957. Her granduncle had been a studio photographer in Bombay, and her father Rumi had been an amateur photographer.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Taraporevala |first=Soon |title=Home in the City |publisher=Harper Collins and Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts |year=2017 |isbn=9789352773152 |pages=5-11 and 118-125}}</ref> She completed her schooling from [[Queen Mary School, Mumbai]]. Taraporevala got her first [[Instamatic]] camera at age 16.<ref name=":1" /> She received a full scholarship to attend [[Harvard University]] as an undergraduate, where with a loan from a roommate she bought a [[Nikkormat]] camera, which was stolen upon her return to Bombay in the 1980s.<ref name=":1" /> At Harvard she majored in English and American Literature, she took many film courses including filmmaking taught by [[Alfred Guzzetti]].<ref name=hc>{{cite web |title=Portrait of an Artist: Sooni Taraporevala|author= Tree A. Palmedo |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/10/30/sooni-taraporevala-parsis-zizou/ |date=30 October 2012 |publisher=The Harvard Crimson |access-date=5 March 2013}}</ref> Taraporevala met [[Mira Nair]] as an undergraduate, leading to their longtime creative collaboration. Next she joined the Cinema Studies Department at [[New York University]], and after receiving her MA in Film Theory and Criticism, in 1981, she returned to India to work as a freelance still photographer.<ref>[http://www.soonitaraporevala.com/bio.html Biography]</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=I was called a rudderless ship |url=http://www.tehelka.com/story_main7.asp?filename=hub101604i_was_called.asp |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120911111513/http://www.tehelka.com/story_main7.asp?filename=hub101604i_was_called.asp |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 September 2012 |date=16 October 2004 |publisher=[[Tehelka]] }}</ref><ref>[http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/apr/06spec.htm Sooni was everywhere, doing everything!] [[Rediff.com]], 6 April 2001.</ref> Her early work from this period was shot on a [[Leica Camera|Leica]] and her father's [[Nikon]].<ref name=":1" /> She returned to Los Angeles in 1988 and worked as a screenwriter, writing commissioned screenplays for a wide variety of studios including Universal, HBO and Disney. She moved back to India for good in 1992 where she lives with her husband Firdaus Batlivala and children Jahan and Iyanah.<ref name=":1" /> Jahan and Iyanah Batlivala played the role of Xerxes and Liana respectively in [[Little Zizou]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Iyanah Bativala |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2801475/ |access-date=2023-03-23 |website=IMDb |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Screenplays==
Taraporevala wrote the screenplays for ''[[Salaam Bombay!]]'' and ''[[Mississippi Masala]]'', both directed by [[Mira Nair]]. Other projects with Nair include the screenplay for ''[[My Own Country]]'', based on the book by [[Abraham Verghese]], as well as ''[[The Namesake (film)|The Namesake]]'' (2006), a cinematic adaptation of [[Pulitzer Prize|Pulitzer]]–winning writer [[Jhumpa Lahiri]]'s novel, ''[[The Namesake (novel)|The Namesake]]''.<ref name=":0" />

Her other produced credits include the film ''[[Such a Long Journey (film)|Such a Long Journey]]'' based on the novel ''[[Such a Long Journey (novel)|Such a Long Journey]]'' by [[Rohinton Mistry]] and directed by Sturla Gunnarson, and the screenplay for the film ''[[Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (film)|Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar]]'', directed by [[Jabbar Patel]] for the Government of India and the [[National Film Development Corporation of India]] (NFDC).{{Citation needed|date=September 2015}}

In 2016 she directed a 14-minute documentary virtual reality film ''[[Yeh Ballet]]''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU718R9JBzs |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/LU718R9JBzs| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|title=Yeh Ballet |website=[[YouTube]] }}{{cbignore}}</ref> for [[Anand Gandhi]]'s [[Memesys Culture Lab]].

In 2020 she wrote and directed a feature film based on her documentary. The Netflix Original film ''Yeh Ballet'' produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur and Roy Kapur Films can be seen on Netflix worldwide.

==Photography==
In 1982, during a break from college, she met photographer [[Raghubir Singh (photographer)|Raghubir Singh]], who, after looking at her work, which included photographs of her extended Parsi family, suggested she work on a book about the Parsi community. This started her extensive work of photo documentation of the Parsi community.<ref name=hc/><blockquote>...she had the eye, the patience, the empathy of a seasoned portraitist; but she also had something even harder to find — a lifelong, unillusioned, affectionate closeness to an entire community whose numbers were dwindling with every passing year (Pico Iyer, in Home in the City, 2017).<ref name=":1" /> </blockquote>In 2000, she self-published ''Parsis, the Zoroastrians of India: a photographic journey, 1980-2000'' about the traditionally closed off community since their persecution in Persia, the first and only visual documentation of the Parsi community.<ref name="PZI-2000">{{cite book |last1=Taraporevala |first1=Sooni |title=Parsis, the Zoroastrians of India: a photographic journey, 1980-2000 |date=2000 |publisher=Good Books |location=Mumbai |isbn=9788190121606 |oclc=46352914 }}</ref> An updated edition was published in 2004.<ref name="PZI-2004">{{cite book |last1=Taraporevala |first1=Sooni |title=Parsis: the Zoroastrians of India: a photographic journey, 1980-2004 |date=2004 |publisher=[[Overlook Duckworth]] |location=Woodstock, NY |isbn=9781585675937 |oclc=1029371098 }}</ref>

Her photographs have been exhibited in India, the US, France and Britain, including London's [[Tate Modern]] gallery.{{Citation needed|date=September 2015}}

She has had solo shows at the [[Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts]] at Harvard University, [[Chemould Prescott Road]] in Mumbai and the [[National Gallery of Modern Art]] (NGMA) in Delhi. Her work is in the permanent collections of the NGMA Delhi and the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art|Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York]]. 

In 2017/2018, the [[Whitworth Art Gallery|Whitworth]] in [[Manchester]] exhibited her photographic show ''Home in the City, Bombay 1977{{Snd}} Mumbai 2017''. It was selected by The Guardian as one of UK's top 5 shows.{{Citation needed|date=February 2020}}

A larger version of ''Home in the City'' with 102 photographs was exhibited at Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, from 14 through 31 October 2017.<ref name="ADI-20171012">{{cite web |last1=Rodgers |first1=Barry |title=From Bombay to Mumbai: Sooni Taraporevala's photographic tribute to the city she loves |url=https://www.architecturaldigest.in/content/from-bombay-to-mumbai-sooni-taraporevalas-photographic-tribute-to-the-city-she-loves/#s-cust0 |website=[[Architectural Digest]] |access-date=20 April 2020 |location=India |date=12 October 2017}}</ref> An accompanying book, ''Home in the city: Bombay 1977{{Snd}} Mumbai 2017'', was released with essays by Pico Iyer and Salman Rushdie.<ref name="HITC-2017">{{cite book |last1=Taraporevala |first1=Sooni |title=Home in the city: Bombay 1977{{Snd}} Mumbai 2017 |date=2017 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |location=India |isbn=9789352773152}}</ref> It then traveled to the [[Sunaparanta, Goa Centre for the Arts]] in [[Altinho, Goa]], opening there on 11 November 2017.{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}}

==Filmography==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Film
! Director
! Writer
! Notes
|-
|1988
|''[[Salaam Bombay!]]''<ref>{{cite web |title=Godrej Typewriter Factory, Bombay |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/719511 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref>
|{{no}}
|{{yes}}
|
|-
|1991
|''[[Mississippi Masala]]''<ref>{{cite web|title=Mississippi Masala|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102456/|website=[[Internet Movie Database]]}}</ref>
|{{no}}
|{{yes}}
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|1998
|''[[Such a Long Journey (movie)|Such a Long Journey]]''<ref>{{cite news |title=Sooni Taraporevala: Have shown religious harmony subtly in ''Yeh Ballet'' |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/sooni-taraporevala-have-shown-religious-harmony-subtly-in-yeh-ballet/1740844 |work=outlookindia.com}}</ref>
|{{no}}
|{{yes}}
|
|-
|''[[My Own Country]]''
|{{no}}
|{{yes}}
|Television film
|-
|2000
|''[[Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (film)|Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar]]''<ref>{{citation |last1=Perreire Hawkins |first1=Blendine |last2=Jackson |first2=Melanie N. G. |title=The Namesake, Sooni Taraporevala |work=Journal of Feminist Family Therapy |pages=135–137 |doi=10.1080/08952833.2013.777876 |date=April 2013|s2cid=216136386 }}</ref>
|{{no}}
|{{yes}}
|
|-
|2006
|''[[The Namesake (film)|The Namesake]]''<ref>{{cite news |title=The story of an iconic Indian family photograph |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36583511 |work=BBC News |date=28 June 2016}}</ref>
|{{no}}
|{{yes}}
|
|-
|2009
|''[[Little Zizou (film)|Little Zizou]]''
|{{yes}}
|{{yes}}
|
|-
|2020
|''[[Yeh Ballet]]''<ref>{{cite web|title=Yeh Ballet|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10230436/|website=[[Internet Movie Database]]}}</ref>
|{{yes}}
|{{yes}}
|
|}

==Awards==
* 1988: Lillian Gish Award with Mira Nair, at the Los Angeles Women in Film Festival, for Excellence in Feature Film, for [[Salaam Bombay!]]<ref>{{Citation |title=Salaam Bombay! - IMDb |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096028/awards/ |access-date=2023-03-23}}</ref>
* 1991: [[Golden Osella]] (Best Original Screenplay) [[49th Venice International Film Festival]]: ''[[Mississippi Masala]]''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Venice Film Festival (1991) |url=http://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000681/1991/1/ |access-date=2023-03-23 |website=IMDb}}</ref>
*2008: Time/Warner Best Screenplay Award at Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council, New York, for ''Little Zizou''
*2008: Best Director at Mahindra Indo- American Arts Council, New York, for ''Little Zizou''
*2008: Best Producer at Asian Festival of 1ST Films, Singapore, for ''Little Zizou''
*2009: Best Director of Experience Section of Levante International Film Festival, Italy, for ''Little Zizou''
*2009: Audience Choice Award at Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, (IFFLA) for ''Little Zizou''
* 2014: [[Padma Shri]] by [[Government of India]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Padma Awards Announced |publisher=Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs| url = http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=69364 |date=25 January 2014|access-date=26 January 2014}}</ref>
*2020: [[Filmfare Awards|Filmfare]] nomination for Best Film Web Original, for ''Yeh Ballet''

==Memberships==
* [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]] (2017–present)<ref>{{cite web |title=Academy invites record 774 new members; 39 percent female, 30 percent people color |work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/academy-invites-record-774-new-members-39-percent-female-30-percent-people-color-1017318 |date=29 June 2017 |access-date=29 June 2017}}</ref>
* [[Writers Guild of America]] (1989–present)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
''Biography'':
* [http://www.soonitaraporevala.com/ Official Website]
* [http://www.avanprojects.com/ Trailer of upcoming documentary on Taraporevala]
* SAWNET biography
* {{IMDb name|id=0850247|name=Sooni Taraporevala}}
* http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/10/30/sooni-taraporevala-parsis-zizou/ at [[The Harvard Crimson]]
* https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/719511 at THE MET
* https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/VcDlKlKfiCz3SFxHE6TBrM/Sooni-Taraporevala-To-Bombay-with-love.html at Mint
* http://www.gallerychemould.com/exhibitions/sooni-taraporevala-bombay-mumbai-black-white-photographs/<nowiki/> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180406163916/http://www.gallerychemould.com/exhibitions/sooni-taraporevala-bombay-mumbai-black-white-photographs/ |date=6 April 2018 }}
* https://thewire.in/culture/bombay-mumbai-seen-sooni-taraporewalas-sharp-eye at [[The Wire (India)|THE WIRE]]

''Misc.'':
* [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4223182 NPR radio feature] at Npr
* [http://www.iranian.com/Arts/2004/November/Parsi/ Iranian.com feature]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071011102923/http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/reviews.nsf/book/story/E474DA9FDDED9FD286256FD400521032?OpenDocument&highlight=2,%22taraporevala%22 St Louis Post-Dispatch- NYTimes wire story]

{{Padma Shri Award Recipients in Art}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taraporevala, Sooni}}
[[Category:1957 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Indian women screenwriters]]
[[Category:Indian women photographers]]
[[Category:Parsi people from Mumbai]]
[[Category:Indian women film directors]]
[[Category:Screenwriters from Mumbai]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Tisch School of the Arts alumni]]
[[Category:Social documentary photographers]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts]]
[[Category:Gujarati-language film directors]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian photographers]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian photographers]]
[[Category:Indian photojournalists]]
[[Category:Indian movie stills photographers]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women artists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women artists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian film directors]]
[[Category:Indian portrait photographers]]
[[Category:Women writers from Maharashtra]]
[[Category:Women artists from Maharashtra]]
[[Category:Film directors from Mumbai]]
[[Category:Photographers from Maharashtra]]
[[Category:Directors who won the Best Film on Family Welfare National Film Award]]
[[Category:20th-century women photographers]]
[[Category:21st-century women photographers]]
[[Category:Women photojournalists]]

Sooni Taraporevala - Revision history

Ajay Kumar: Created a new article