Alankrita Shrivastava – Lipstick Under My Burkha:

Alankrita Shrivastava was born in New Delhi, but moved to Dehra Dun, Uttarakhand. She attended Welham Girls’ School. She graduated from Lady Shri Ram College. She then studied filmmaking at the A.J.K. Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia. 

Alankrita worked as an associate director for Prakash Jha, and assisted him on films like Gangaajal, Apaharan, Loknayak, Dil Dosti, Khoya Khoya Chand, and Raajneeti. She then wrote and helmed her debut film Turning 30, which was a critical failure and box office disaster. Shrivastava then scripted the film Lipstick Under My Burkha in 2012. She has also worked as a director and writer for the web series Made in Heaven and a film Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare in 2019. Having debuted as a director in 2011, she has since received such honours as the Films de Femmes Grand Prix and a nomination for a Filmfare award. Her film Lipstick Under My Burkha’s draft was submitted to the screenwriter’s lab at National Film Development Corporation of India, where she was mentored by Urmi Juvekar, prior to the film’s world premiere. The film was then premiered in October 2016 at the Tokyo International Film Festival and was also screened at the Mumbai Film Festival in the same month.

Some of her notable works include:

Gangaajal

Lipstick Under My Burkha

Made in Heaven

Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare

Raajneeti

Shrivastava currently resides and works in Mumbai. During an interview with a leading daily, she had revealed that she follows Buddhism.  Her father left for heavenly abode in 2016, owing to a prolonged illness. In January 2017, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) refused to issue a certificate to the film Lipstick Under My Burkha, owing to the sexual content and language used in the film, which led the board to deny the release of the film in India. After Shrivastavaa and her team appealed the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) for the release of the film, a few changes in the original cut led the FCAT to direct CBFC to issue an A certificate to the film.