Artist Statement

I was born as a Tibetan refugee in a large Tibetan resettlement camp in South India. My life has been a fusion of Tibetan culture and tradition with spice of Indian culture and lifestyle. I grew up watching Bollywood movies and Hindi soap operas, which is where my curiosity and passion for film flourished. Bollywood's festive, colorful, and musical films have this power to inspire and impact the whole country unlike any Hollywood movies. Being a refugee, naturally I want to spread the word about my country's struggle for freedom through film. I love documentaries however; I believe documentaries aren’t the only way to spread the word about Tibet. In my senior year of high school, while doing a research, I discovered that Mao Zedong’s Wikipedia page doesn’t contain anything about Mao invading Tibet. So I took it upon myself to write up a section about Mao and Tibet, which turned out to be a difficult task, for almost three years now, the section is still up on his page. That little achievement of mine drives me to spread the word about my freedom struggle. I want to make movies with the style of Anurag Basu's "Barfi" style scenic shots, South Indian movie style drama, and the story of my people with romance like Nicholas Sparks novels. Just because my freedom struggle is a terrible reality doesn’t mean it should be told in a depressing documentary style. I want my audience to feel the helplessness millions of Tibetans feel, yet experience the safe haven we have found in India, our second home.