0:00:14.918,0:00:16.869
Thank you Sean.

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My story actually starts with two films:

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The first is "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham",[br]- it's a great name -

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one of the most successful films[br]produced in India,

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and the Oscar-winning[br]"Slumdog Millionaire,"

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one of the most successful films[br]produced about India.

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So when we look at images of these films,

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we see two very different views[br]of the same country:

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one is a fairy-tale, this nation built[br]on wealth and romance,

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the other is a near calamity,

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a place filled with poverty[br]and corruption.

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Cinema offers us insights

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into how we can perceive[br]a country and its people,

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who they are, what they value,[br]how they see themselves,

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as well as how others see them.

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And from these images,

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the view of India it seems[br]is either that of a musical or a slum.

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So my own journey into the world of films[br]started in the suburbs of Chicago

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where I was born.

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I'm the second child[br]of two Indian immigrants,

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and growing up in a joint family,

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I was raised on stories told to me[br]by both my grandfathers,

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one of whom left school in the fourth grade

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to sell timber to the British[br]during the reign of the Empire.

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The other worked for a local government,

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and he would travel[br]to remote areas of India

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in order to implement[br]the policies of the British Raj.

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So as I grew up, I remember listening[br]to these stories of India in the 1940s,

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and longing for a connection[br]to my own current story,

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that of America in the 1990s.

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I found this through film.

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Through stories that were rooted[br]in the American experience,

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and offered me a perspective

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that were so different[br]from the stories of my origin.

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However, it was the disparity[br]between these two stories

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that served as a constant reminder to me

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of the hardwork and the sacrifice[br]my parents had made to come to America.

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Mainly, to offer[br]their children opportunities

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that they themselves never had.

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America was possibility, freedom,[br]and a place to make an impact.

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My brother and I were raised[br]fueled by that desire:

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the desire to give something back

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to a country that had given[br]so much to our family.

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I took this ideology with me[br]into my first job out of college

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at a prestigious magazine[br]in New York City.

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It was pretty much my dream job,

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writing for a publication[br]that I had idolized as a kid

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for its political, environmental,[br]and issues-driven content.

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It was serious journalism,[br]but made accessible,

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and that felt like it was[br]a real vehicle for change in my eyes.

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However, instead of the fulfillment[br]that I had expected, I felt emptiness.

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It was as if I was surrounded by people[br]who were more concerned

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about how they, their brand,[br]and their legacy was perceived

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instead of their content.

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So that serious journalism[br]that I was drawn to,

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its message felt lost and diluted.

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I had built up this idea in my head

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about what writing about social issues[br]could do in terms of creating an impact,

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and instead, I was faced with the reality

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that to me, that message[br]felt so out of reach.

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So I quit my job.

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I moved back home[br]with my parents in Chicago

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and I was completely disillusioned.

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I spent months there;[br]and finally, with nothing left to do,

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I booked a ticket to go to[br]a friend's wedding in India

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for a two-week trip.

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Little did I know

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that I would find my lasting connection[br]to stories and their impact

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in the country of my grandfathers' birth

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and through a medium[br]that I knew nothing about:

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Bollywood.

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So a few days after I got to India,

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through friends of friends I was invited[br]to visit a Bollywood film shoot.

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And it was like nothing[br]I had ever seen before.

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I remember watching[br]as actors and actresses lip-synced

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to these songs that blared[br]from speakers overhead,

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and they were twirling together[br]in front of a green screen,

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meant not to represent India,

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but the mountains of Switzerland[br]or the pyramids of Egypt.

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(Laughter)

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So this was a story like none[br]I had ever seen before.

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It was different from the stories[br]of my grandfathers

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and from the stories[br]that I sought out in Chicago.

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It was just the most[br]incredible thing for me.

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Seeing something so unknown to me[br]was what pulled me in,

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it made me want to learn more

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about what the current story of India was,[br]and what it meant to its people.

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So I set up a couple of meetings

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with the few people that I knew[br]who knew people in Bollywood,

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and at one of them, with[br]the Confederation of Indian Industry

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which is an organization that works[br]to promote industry in India,

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I was asked to write a report[br]on the state of the film business

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So I stayed at first for a month,[br]then for three months,

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and finally, for over two years.

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I worked in International Marketing[br]and Branding for Bollywood films,

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setting up meetings for Indian producers[br]in LA with their American counterparts,

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putting together the first official Indian[br]presence at the Cannes Film Festival,

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and organizing a conference[br]where Indian producers would get to meet

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with Marketing and Distribution experts[br]from all over the world.

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But this was where I realized[br]my own paradox.

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I had thought that by addressing[br]social issues head on

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by writing about them, I would find[br]my way of creating an impact.

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But instead, it was in that moment[br]of my disillusionment

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that I stumbled upon the fantasies,[br]and the fairy-tales of Bollywood,

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and that was where I found my meaning.

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Because Bollywood films, although[br]they are musicals full of song and dance,

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they are important to a country[br]of over a billion people,

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and there is one very simple[br]reason as to why: they give us hope.

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But this is the paradox of Indian films,

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because Bollywood films mirror[br]this dream of what India wants to be,

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not what it really is.

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And films like Slumdog Millionaire[br]limit our view of all that India can be.

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So somewhere between these two stories,

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between this homegrown fantasy,[br]and this imported fiction,

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there lies a third emerging story.

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And that is[br]of a growing Indian middle class,

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of young people who have opportunities

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that they couldn't have imagined[br]for themselves a generation ago,

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of women who are charting[br]their own course in their lives,

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and of a country that although is[br]in a constant transition and influx

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is experiencing a renewal[br]of all that it really is.

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And to me, these are the stories[br]that have the most meaning,

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because these are the stories[br]that allow us to break down

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our stereotypes of a people and a place,

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they allow us to re-examine who we are,[br]and how others see us,

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but most of all, these stories[br]reinforce the idea

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that our own lives are good enough to be[br]the stories that we share with others.

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So it's because of my own journey[br]that I am always inspired to ask others

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to look past[br]what they know of their stories,

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to re-examine how they see themselves,[br]and how others see them.

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For me, that involved letting go of a lot[br]of the constructs I had in my head

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about what impact was[br]and where I would find it.

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Because although we all have

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our own versions of a path[br]that we see in front of us,

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or a story that we think[br]that we've written for ourselves,

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it is sometimes that unknown story,

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the journey we didn't think we'd take[br]that leads to our new voice,

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it's that story that has us[br]shift past the fantasy and the fiction,

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and finally to focus on our own truth.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)