TINA
Cast: Gayatri Bahl, Shalini Bathina, Sarah Baskin, Surina Jindal
Crew: Producers: Gayatri Bahl, Anuj Goyal – Screenwriters: Gayatri Bahl – Director of Photography: Brian Hollars – Assistant Director: Anuj Goyal – Hairstylist, Makeup Artist, Makeup Effects: Amanda DeSouza – Editor: Gayatri Bahl, Anthony Dimeri, Vick Krishna – Sound Mixer: Bhaskar Sarma – Production Assistant: Dimitri Serov, Jessic
Email: gayatriom@gmail.com
Web: tinathemovie.com
Synopsis
TINA is a surreal thriller about a woman who goes through self-transformation therapy only to be haunted by an Indian classical dancer, forcing her to confront herself in a way she never expected.
Director
Gayatri Patel Bahl is a multi-disciplinary artist, award-winning filmmaker, actress, Indian classical dancer and entrepreneur. Gayatri’s journey has led her through Bollywood as the lead of the Hindi Film “Let’s Dance”; from founding Textured, a web development company, to co-founding Leblum, a Techstars NYC 16′ company; and finally to writing, directing and starring in TINA, an award-winning short film which is currently on the festival circuit. Performing for over 25 years, Gayatri can be seen in Mr. Robot, Showtime’s The Loudest Voice, HBO’s Vinyl, Law & Order SVU, the Hindi Film Let’s Dance, and Rishta.com (Netflix). As an Indian classical dancer, Gayatri was featured by Elle Magazine’s Movement Series and has graced the stage of the world renowned Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theatre, NYC’s SummerStage, NJPAC and has been featured in the Huffington Post, Elle Magazine US, Times of India, Real Bollywood, Sa Dance Company, Filmfare Magazine and ETC Networks. Learn more at GayatriBahl.com
Filmmaker’s Note
As a South Asian American, there is an entire generation of us, as children of Immigrants, who connected with our heritage by training extensively in the Indian classical arts every weekend in someone’s garage or basement across America. Rarely do we ever see Representation of Indian classical dance in western media. When we do, it is a caricature of Bollywood cinema as a part of a wedding sequence. Indian classical dance is so much more than that, it’s the foundation of our storytelling. In TINA, I aimed to break the stereotype of the south asian woman who is the perfect lawyer, doctor or engineer, by exploring deep conflict with my personal identity through the experience of a South Asian woman who is haunted by a part of her heritage in the form of a genre-bending thriller.
