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About the Filmmaker

Vaishali produced and directed the award-winning feature documentaries, MADE IN INDIA (PBS, Kanopy) and ASK THE SEXPERT (PBS World, Netflix India, Amazon Prime). Made in India followed the story of a couple who journeyed from Texas to Mumbai to have a baby through surrogacy. Ask the Sexpert presents the growing popularity of a 92-year-old sex advice columnist in Mumbai against the backdrop of a ban on sex education in school curriculum. Vaishali was a development consultant for the Oscar winning documentary team behind PERIOD. END. OF. SENTENCE. She is currently in co production with Sandbox Films on her third feature documentary GIVE IT A SHOT.

Vaishali is a Bellagio Center fellow, a CREA institute fellow and recipient of grants from MacArthur Foundation, ITVS, Sandbox Films, Catapult Fund, Gucci Tribeca Doc Fund, NYSCA, Center for Asian American Media, Playboy Foundation and many others. Vaishali’s films have won jury awards for Best Documentary at film festivals as well as a Critics Choice Award in India, a Grierson nomination for Best Entertaining Film and a Ridenhour Peace Prize Nomination for Excellence in Truth-Telling. Her film Made in India was a case study at Harvard Business School for a course on ethics.

In the past Vaishali has worked with filmmakers Bishakha Datta. Kiran and Abaan Deohans, Mira Nair, and Richard Wormser. Most recently she was the Creative Advisor to the Bangalore based SRHR group Hidden Pockets Collective. She is a founding member of Bitchitra Collective: Indian Women in Documentary. Vaishali has a Bachelor’s in Physics from St. Xavier’s Mumbai, and a diploma in Film Production from the New School University (NY) where she graduated with a special recognition for her thesis film CHOOSE LIFE? Vaishali is originally from Mumbai, and now resides in Brooklyn, New York with her husband Fred Lassen, a Music Supervisor and their son Luca.

Other Industry Work:

Member of the Nominations Committee, Henry Awards, Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School.

Co founder and Working Committee Member, Bitchitra Collective

Selection Committee, Bellagio Center Residency Program, 2024

Jury Committee, NYSCA Grants (New York State Council on the Arts), 2023

Screening Committee Member,“What is Asia?” film festival by Happy Family Night Market, May 2023

Juror for Multi-Part Documentary at 38th IDA Awards

Mentor, Diverse Voices in Docs, Kartemquin Films 2022

Documentary Film Jury Member, Fayetville Film Festival, 2021

Founding Member, Bitchitra Collective Artist Sustenence Grant, 2021

Mentor, Video Consortium Sony Mentorship Program, 2021

Directing Mentor, Firelight Media DocLab, 2020