Aruna Vasudev

Vasudev in France, 2010

Born|

Aruna Vasudev

1936
Nationality| Indian
Spouse| Sunil Roy (d. 1993)
Children| 1 dau (Inca)

Aruna Vasudev (born 1936) is an Indian critic, author, editor, painter, maker of documentaries and is considered an eminent scholar on Asian cinema,[1][2] who has also been described as the "mother of Asian Cinema".[3]

## Early life and education[edit]

A younger sister of Uma Vasudeva, she was born in 1936. After marrying Sunil Kumar Roy, an Indian diplomat, she chose to retain her maiden name.[4]

His Excellency Sunil Roy died in New York from cancer in 1993, having previously served as Indian Ambassador to Poland, then Mexico, and High Commissioner to Nigeria.[5]

In the early 1960s, she attended film classes in New York where her father was working and created a number of short documentaries after her return to India. She received a doctorate from the University of Paris on cinema and censorship.[6] Her PhD thesis was published as a book titled Liberty and Licence in the Indian Cinema in 1979.[1]

## Career[edit]

Vasudev currently serves as director of Osian's-Connoisseurs of Art Private Limited.[2][7] She is also one of the Trustees of the Public Service Broadcasting Trust in India.[8]

She started as a greenhorn helping in the makeup rooms of Doordarsan in 1960.[9]

She launched Cinemaya in 1988 as a publication that showcases filmmakers from Asia. In 1991, she founded the internationally renowned NETPAC as an organisation to forward the cause of Asian films.[4]

Since 1990, she has been the President or Jury Member of international film festivals including Karlovy Vary, Locarno, Cannes (Camera d'Or), Las Palmas, Pusan, Singapore, Fajr (Tehran), and Antalya.

## Honours and awards[edit]

### Honours[edit]

Appointed Cavaliere della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana in 2004,[10] in 2019 Vasudev was honoured by the French Government as Officier des Arts et des Lettres,[11] the highest accolades from two major film-producing countries, Italy and France.[4]

### Awards[edit]

In 1997, Vasudev won the Korean Cinema Award at the Pusan International Film Festival.

In 2006, Vasudev received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Cinemanila International Film Festival.

In 2015, Vasudev was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2nd edition of the International Film Festival of Colombo[12] for her contributions towards putting Asian cinema on the international map.[13] At the Hawaii International Film Festival the same year, Vasudev won a Vision in Film Award.

The Tripoli Film Festival[14] has named its prize for Best Writing on Cinema as the “Aruna Vasudev Award”.[3]

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b "Lifetime Achievement Awards - Aruna Vasudev and Adoor Gopalakrishnan". IFFCOLOMBO 2015 - International Film Festival of Colombo 2015. Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2017-11-22.
2. ^ a b "Aruna Vasudev: Executive Profile & Biography - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-11-22.
3. ^ a b "Aruna Vasudev gets 4 lifetime awards in 1 year". asianage.com/. 2016-01-22. Retrieved 2017-11-22.
4. ^ a b c "Power Moment: Aruna Vasudev". Verve Magazine. 2016-07-07. Retrieved 2017-11-22.
5. ^ www.nytimes.com
6. ^ www.in.ambafrance.org
7. ^ "www.osians.co.in". Archived from the original on 2022-12-30. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
8. ^ www.psbt.org
9. ^ "The Telegraph - Calcutta : Weekend". www.telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on January 1, 2007. Retrieved 2017-11-22.
10. ^ www.presidenti.quirinale.it
11. ^ www.tribuneindia.com
12. ^ www.ceyiff.com
13. ^ Ramakrishnan, T. (2015-10-27). "Adoor, Aruna Vasudev to be honoured at Colombo Film festival". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2017-11-22.
14. ^ www.tripoli-filmfestival.org

## External links[edit]

* IMDB profile
* Cinemaya official website Archived 2019-03-06 at the Wayback Machine
* German Wikipage on Aruna Vasudev
* 25 years of NETPAC

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* France
* BnF data
* Germany
* Israel
* United States
* Netherlands

Other|

* IdRef