Lipika Singh Darai

She is developing her debut fiction feature Birdwoman which has received the Hubert Bals Development Fund 2023. She is one of the ten creative talents in BAFTA Breakthrough-India 2023.

• Name — Lipika Singh Darai • Birthplace — Damasahi, Mayurbhanj district, Odisha, India • Occupation — Filmmaker, Film Director, Film Editor • Partner — Writer • Awards — Four National Film Awards

Darai was born in Damasahi, Odisha, India to both parents from the Ho indigenous community. She is based in Bhubaneswar. Darai graduated from Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in 2010, specialising in sound recording and design.

In 2012, Darai directed her debut film Eka Gacha Eka Maṇisha Eka Samudra (English: A Tree a Man a Sea) in Odia. In 2014, she made film essay Kankee O Saapo (Dragonfly and Snake) which won the National Film Awards in the narration / voice-over category. In 2015, she directed Some Stories Around Witches, produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust, a film about the humanitarian crisis surrounding the cases of witch-hunts in Odisha, India. Her short fiction film The Waterfall (2017), produced by LXL Ideas, made for schools across India, focuses on the struggle to protect a dying waterfall and received the National Award for Best Educational Film. In 2021, she directed Backstage. This Odia film depicts different styles of puppetry of Odisha highlighting the work of master rod-puppeteer Maguni Charan Kuanr, Rabana Chhaya / Shadow puppeteers of Odash village (Ravan Chhaya Natya Sansada Team), Gouranga Charan Dash (Shadow Pupeeteer), Sakhi Kandhei Nacha puppeteers (glove puppeteers) Abhay Singh, Parameshwar Singh, Sridhar Singh, Kedar Singh and Team, as well as the string puppeteers of Ganjam District, including Chaitanya Behera and his team. The film also tries to look at these puppeteers' art forms in the context of the caste system in India. In 2023, she made her second film essay called Raati o Bhaya (Night and Fear) produced by writer/producer Subravanu Das.

Lipika assisted Indraneel Lahiri in a year long Research Project (2012-2013) on Puppetry of Odisha. The research work was conducted with a fellowship under National Folklore Support Centre, Chennai. Lipika was selected among various Artists across India for a project called Listening to the city under City as Studio Programme (2013) by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies's Sarai Project. Lipika participated in Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in 2017as a filmmaker and Visual Artist with her film essay Dragonfly and Snake. Lipika authored the essay "Making Films from and about the Margins" in Resistance in Indian Documentary Film, published by Edinburgh University Press, in 2024, a book that explores various forms of resistance in contemporary Indian documentary cinema.

• Year — Films — Language — Role — Producer — Awards • 2010 — Gaarud — Hindi, Maratthi — Audiographer — FTII • 2012 — A Tree a Man a Sea — Odia — Director — Veenu Bhushan Vaid — National Film for Best Debut Film of a Director (Non-Feature Category) • 2014 — Kankee O Saapo — Odia — Director/Editor — Indranaal Lahiri — National Film Award for Best Narration/voice-over (Non-Feature Category) • 2015 — Some Stories Around Witches — Odia — Director/Editor — PSBT, India • 2016 — In the Shadow of Time — Odia — Editor — IGNCA • 2017 — The Waterfall — English, Odia and Hindi Version — Director/Editor — LXL Ideas, India — National Film Award for Best Educational Film (Non-Feature Category) • 2018 — The Sound Man Mangesh Desai — Hindi, English — Editor — WIMPTSEA • 2021 — Backstage — Odia — Director/Editor — Films Division, India • 2023 — Night and Fear — Odia — Director/Editor — Subravanu Das • 2023 — B and S — Odia, English — Director/ Cinematographer/ Editor — Rough Edges — yet to be released