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LAUNCHPAD: A PITCH COMPETITION 2025
$10,000 Development Grant
Meet the five finalists selected to present their project to a panel of distinguished, industry-expert judges in front of a live audience. The pitches will receive immediate feedback from the judge’s panel, and one winner will be awarded a $10,000 development grant presented by Joy of Sharing and Tarsadia Foundation.
The winner will be announced at the Closing Night Gala and Awards Ceremony on May 10, 2025.
The jury for the Pitch Competition:
- Aanch Khaneja, TV and Film Producer
- Isaac Klausner, President of Production at Temple Hill Entertainment
- Santiago Marcos, Director of Development, Gaumont Television
- Madhuri Shekar, Writer (Three Body Problem, Evil Eye)
- Chisom Ude, Development Executive, Inflection Point Entertainment
Mentors for the Pitch Competition:
- Siobhan Flynn, Head of Production and Development, Ventanarosa
- Lakshmi Iyengar, Independent Producer and Film Executive
- Kilian Kerwin, President, Jaya Entertainment
- Roshan Sethi, Director, Writer, Producer (7 Days, A Nice Indian Boy, The Resident)
THE FINALISTS:
Now and Then (Feature)
Venk Potula (director/ writer) is an award-winning writer, director, and producer. He produced and starred in the feature film Four Samosas, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was acquired by IFC Films. The film is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+. His short films have screened at over 25 festivals, including Urbanworld and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. His Atlanta-shot short Woke won Best Narrative Short at the Sacramento Asian Pacific American Film Festival. Venk holds a B.A. from UCLA and a dual MBA/MFA from Chapman University, where he developed a directorial voice that blends artistic vision with strategic production insight.
Rena Patel (writer) is a South Asian American writer and producer based in Los Angeles. She graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, California, in 2019 with a degree in English and creative writing. Her diverse body of work spans the page, stage, and screen. Her romantic comedy stage play, Pyar Aur Coffee, was a finalist in the 46th Bay Area Playwrights Festival and was produced at the Long Beach Shakespeare Company’s New Works Festival in 2024 to a sold-out run. In addition to her writing, Rena is part of the creative team at Bootleg Universe Media Group/Shankar Animation, where she works on cutting-edge storytelling projects. Her prose and poetry can be found in various publications, including Sanctuaries: An Anthology of South Asian Survivor Stories, The Sunflower Station Press, and The Calendula Review. She is pursuing a law degree at Loyola Law School, focusing on entertainment law.
The Secret Life of Samira Sen (Television)
Minoti Vaishnav (writer): Minoti’s credits include True Lies (CBS) and The Equalizer (CBS). As a former pop star, she released three albums. As a former unscripted development producer, she produced over a dozen true crime, historical, and paranormal investigation shows. Minoti is also a published short fiction author and scripted podcast writer. She has a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Oxford University and is an alumna of the Paramount Writers Mentoring Program.
The Moth and the Fly (Feature)
Vankshita Mishra is a filmmaker, actor, and curator based in Los Angeles and London. After completing a Bachelor’s Degree in Natural Sciences (Physics & Chemistry) at Durham University, she worked in film, publishing, and briefly with Greenpeace UK. In 2022, Vankshita was selected for a Fulbright BAFTA Scholarship to pursue an MFA in Film Production at the University of Southern California. While pursuing her Master’s Degree, she has been awarded the BAFTA-Pigott Scholarship and an Alfred P. Sloan Writing Award for her first feature script.
Adult Children (Feature)
Kiana Rawji is a Canadian writer and director based in Brooklyn, New York. She studied Film, History, and Literature at Harvard College. As a South Asian Muslim woman and daughter of East African Asian immigrants, she is drawn to stories of diaspora, identity, and human resilience. Her documentary Long Distance (2021) is about migrant workers at an Albertan meat plant. Mama of Manyatta (2023) follows a woman fighting HIV and gender-based violence in a Kenyan slum. Both have premiered at renowned festivals. Her 2023 fiction film, Inside Job, is about an Indian woman who suspects her African domestic workers of stealing jewelry in 1970s Nairobi. The film premiered at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival. Kiana is developing her first feature, a coming-of-age drama centered on an intergenerational immigrant family.
A Place in Between (Feature)
Alisha Bhowmik is a multi-racial (Bengali Indian, Cherokee Nation) artist from Arkansas based in Brooklyn, New York. She is a graduate of NYU Tisch and the Atlantic Acting School. She produced the feature film Blow Up My Life (Tubi), which premiered at the Austin Film Festival and had a limited theatrical release in 2023. She has produced short films that have been awarded a Vimeo Staff Pick and NoBudge Best of the Year 2022, and directed music videos that have been featured in Huffington Post, Refinery29, and PAPER magazine. Her short documentary Dot & a Feather was the first Sundance Collab Challenge winner. She participated in Cine Qua Non Lab 2024 Storylines Lab for her debut feature screenplay. She has been producing at the acclaimed advertising agency Droga5, for clients like Chase, Essentia, Ad Council, and Atlassian. www.alishabhowmik.com
