520 8th Avenue, Suite 318, New York, NY 10018
e: info@hidingdivya.com

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Click on names to view individual bios:

FILMAKERS & CREW:
Rehana Mirza, Writer/Director
Rohi Mirza Pandya, Producer
Gitesh Pandya, Executive Producer
Deep Katdare, Executive Producer/Actor
Vijay Vaidyanathan, Executive Producer
Renato Falcao, A.B.C. Director of Photography
Michelle Botticelli, Editor
Samrat Chakrabarti, Composer
Meetu Chilana, Associate Producer
Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Kavita Gupta, Associate Producers
Arati Nath, Production Designer

CAST
Madhur Jaffrey, Actress
Pooja Kumar, Actress
Madelaine Massey, Actress
Deep Katdare, Executive Producer/Actor
Kunal Sharma, Actor

Graphic Design: Nilou Moochhala, Nymdesign

Final End Credits

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REHANA MIRZA, DIRECTOR & WRITER

Rehana Mirza is a screenwriter, playwright and director. HIDING DIVYA marks her feature film debut. Mirza, 29, is co-founder (with her sister Rohi Mirza Pandya) and Artistic Director of Desipina & Company, a South Asian and Asian-American arts company promoting cross-pollination in theatre and film.

Rehana has written and directed seven short films: the award-winning Modern Day Arranged Marriage, (NBC Short Cuts Audience Award; LOGO short film feature; featured in over thirty international film festivals), Love Story, Ode to NYC, Looking Good, Feeling Better, Memory & Dream, Fillum Star: The Peter Patel Story, Sightlines and Dear Santa. Her feature screenwriting credits include There’s Something About Marriage (IFP Emerging Narrative Selection), Tiger Meat, Paradise, Quarter Life Crisis, and Far from Home (Sundance Feature Film Labs Finalist).

Her debut full-length play, Barriers, premiered at HERE Arts Center in New York City to sold-out audiences before being co-produced by the Asian American Theatre Company in San Francisco/Los Angeles. Other stage plays have been presented in New York (Culture Project, EST, The Flea, Tenement Museum, DR2Lounge), Los Angeles (Artwallah), Toronto (Rasik Arts), Philadelphia (Asian American Centre) and Washington, D.C. (Arth). 

Mirza received a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council artist grant for HIDING DIVYA and was a 2002 Independent Feature Project trainee. She was a Leopold Schepp Foundation Scholar, John Golden Award Recipient, and is published by Alexander Street Press. She has been recently selected as a P2 for a Cause Recipient to shoot a PSA regarding Thalassemia in the South Asian and Asian communities. A member of the Ma-Yi Theatre Writer's Lab, Mirza graduated with honors from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Dramatic Writing and a minor in Asian Pacific American Studies. She has an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University.

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ROHI MIRZA PANDYA, PRODUCER

Rohi Mirza Pandya is a film, television and theatre producer. In theatre, she is producer and co-founder of Desipina & Company. In film, she has produced Fillum Star: The Peter Patel Story (2004) and the award-winning short, Modern Day Arranged Marriage. For television, she produced the award-winning miniseries, Finding My America, the 2005 and 2006 SASA specials and the 2005 South Asian Media Awards. In theatre, her credits include Barriers, Broke and the award-winning Seven.11 series. 

Mirza Pandya has also organized countless film screenings and premieres of South Asian-themed films, including Monsoon Wedding, The Guru, Bend it Like Beckham and Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.

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GITESH PANDYA, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Gitesh Pandya is a producer and media consultant for Hollywood and Bollywood studios. His clients include Miramax, Disney, Fox Searchlight, Focus, New Line and Universal, for whom he creates South Asian marketing and distribution strategies for outstanding Indian films including The Namesake, Water, Bend It Like Beckham, Monsoon Wedding and Bride & Prejudice.

Pandya edits the film industry website BoxOfficeGuru.com. His analysis has been quoted in The New York Times, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly and other publications.  He regularly provides industry analysis on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel contributing industry analysis. He also produced the feature, American Desi (2001). 

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DEEP KATDARE , EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Deep Katdare has been featured in several independent films, including American Desi.  His latest feature, Americanizing Shelley, starring Beau Bridges, will be released this year. He has appeared on Broadway in Bombay Dreams and The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, at Lincoln Center in Cry of Desire, as well as in Homebody/Kabul, Romeo & Juliet and Measure for Measure. Television credits include: CSI: Miami, Law & Order, Trial by Jury and New York Undercover. He has appeared in commercials for Sprint and Mazda.

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VIJAY VAIDYANATHAN, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Vijay Vaidyanathan is a Silicon Valley Technology executive with over 15 years of experience in Technology and New Media. Vaidyanathan, former Chief Strategy Officer for NBC Internet, also has produced and distributed several independent films including Green Card Fever with his production company Net Effect Media.

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RENATO FALCÀO, DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Renato Falcào is a cinematographer, director, editor and writer. Originally from Brazil, he wrote, directed, edited and was DP for A Festa de Margarette. He has been cinematographer for Griffin and Phoenix, America Desi and Neptune’s Rocking Horse.

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MICHELLE BOTTICELLI, EDITOR

Michelle Botticelli is an editor and producer.  She produced and edited East Broadway (2006). Other editing credits include Modern Day Arranged Marriage, Pizza, The Lost Cause, The Grey Zone, Layin’ Low and Bravo Profiles.

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SAMRAT CHAKRABARTI, COMPOSER

Samrat Chakrabarti is a composer and actor. He created two original songs for HIDING DIVYA — Lost (performed by Meetu Chilana) and Help Me to Find (performed by Manu Narayan). He has also composed music for Unfinished, Two Men in a Shoulder Stand and Fillum Star: The Peter Patel Story.

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MADHUR JAFFREY (DIVYA)

Madhur Jaffrey (Divya), the award winning actress and author, has been featured in numerous films including several of Merchant/Ivory finest works. Film credits also include Six Degrees of Separation, Flawless, Vanya on 42nd Street, Chutney Popcorn, ABCD, Prime and Partition. She appeared on Broadway in Bombay Dreams and has been seen on television in several Law and Order episodes. She is a regular Sony's improvisational comedy series, The Papdits. Jaffrey has written many bestselling books about Indian and Far Eastern cookery including A Taste of India and Illustrated Indian Cookery.

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POOJA KUMAR (LINNY)

Pooja Kumar (Linny) is a former Miss India USA and video disc jockey for Channel V, who made her stage acting debut at the age of one. She has played the lead in four feature films, including Kaadhal Rojave (Tamil), Chota Jadugar (International), Flavors (for which she earned a Screen Actors Guild Emerging Actor Award) and Night of Henna (US). She has also appeared in major ad campaigns for Pepsi, Budweiser, America Online, Verizon and Bombay Dreams.

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MADELAINE MASSEY (JIA)

Madelaine Massey (Jia) was a theater student at AMDA when cast for the film. At 19, Hiding Divya is her first feature film. She currently teaches and choreographs in Toronto, Ontario.

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