Our mission at Rickshaw Film Foundation is to amplify South Asian voices and stories within the film industry through community engagement, mentorship, and grant opportunities — inspiring a new generation of filmmakers in America and highlighting the values, traditions, and lifestyles of our rich cultural perspective.

South Asians are the third-largest immigrant population in America. Despite this fact, South Asian representation in the American film industry has been far from equitable. Only three male South Asian actors have been nominated for Academy Awards since the Academy was founded in 1930, and a South Asian woman has never even been nominated.

In the last few years, we’ve seen many South Asian creatives jump into the forefront of popular culture. Projects created by Mindy Kaling, Hasan Minhaj, Aziz Ansari, and many more have achieved tremendous amounts of critical and commercial success while providing visibility for South Asians in America. These stories mean so much to our community — they connect us with our families, our culture, and our identity as South Asian Americans. And people from inside and outside the culture alike can’t seem to get enough.

So why aren’t more of these stories being told? We believe it has to do with a fundamental lack of financial and societal support for South Asian filmmakers and artists. We are on the cusp of great social change in this country, and we must advocate for and invest in art that reflects that change. We must cultivate this opportunity to inspire, engage, and motivate the next generation of South Asian artists and stories here in America.

Rickshaw Film Foundation will be the entry point for South Asian Americans in the film industry and provide guidance and financial support to minority filmmakers across the nation. We believe that by connecting South Asian American artists with patrons, collaborators, and resources to help tell their stories, we can provide a rich cumulative cultural experience to share with the world.

Our first step at Rickshaw Film Foundation was launching The Writer’s Room, our first incubator program aimed at fostering talent in our community. The program was designed to take projects from ideas to ready-to-shoot scripts.

We have also launched the Fireside Chats, a virtual sit-down where we interview experienced South Asians in the American film industry. These discussions are aimed at providing our community with the insight and wisdom they need to navigate the industry and flourish as filmmakers.

As we continue to grow, we will develop grant programs to cultivate short and feature scripts into competitive, provocative, and polished films. These films will be submitted to global film festivals and distribution channels to further their impact.

Through social change and cultural growth, we hope to create a more diverse, inclusive world in which all people can feel proud of their roots and find inspiration from within — kickstarting a national and global movement and enabling all artists to tell their stories.