Ritu Kamal Singh
- Producer
- Actress
- Director
Ritu Kamal Singh (formerly credited as Ritu Singh Pande) is a producer, actor, writer, and director who brings deeply personal stories to life through independent film. With her company, Durga Entertainment, she's developed and produced festival hit films such as May in the Summer, Car Dogs, A Woman A Part, Festival of Lights, and Borrowed Plumes - each exploring themes of identity, transformation, and belonging.
Born in Jharkhand, India, Ritu's rebellious nature put the sexist cultural norms of her environment into stark focus. Her unconventional experiences as a social activist, military cadet, Miss India finalist, as well as an actor enabled her to explore the various facets of feminism, female and human identity. She left a growing acting career in Mumbai to pursue acting and filmmaking in New York, studying with veterans such as Austin Pendleton, Anthony Abeson, and Terry Schreiber.
Ironically, rather than finding the creative freedom she had sought in New York to explore her passions, Ritu found herself pigeonholed as a minority woman. Energized by this challenge, and struck by the extent of dilution that plagues foreign perspectives in American media, she began developing and producing films transcending the industry stereotypes - creating from the in-between: the space where identity isn't singular or fixed, where women actively unmake and remake themselves, where the personal and political meet in intimate, evolving ways, and where storytelling becomes an act of reclaiming ourselves.
Ritu's experiences as a filmmaker, actor, humanitarian, mother, South Asian woman, and immigrant shape the lens through which she tells stories. Her work lives in the quiet places where transformation happens - beneath appearances, between worlds, and in defiance of expectation.
Born in Jharkhand, India, Ritu's rebellious nature put the sexist cultural norms of her environment into stark focus. Her unconventional experiences as a social activist, military cadet, Miss India finalist, as well as an actor enabled her to explore the various facets of feminism, female and human identity. She left a growing acting career in Mumbai to pursue acting and filmmaking in New York, studying with veterans such as Austin Pendleton, Anthony Abeson, and Terry Schreiber.
Ironically, rather than finding the creative freedom she had sought in New York to explore her passions, Ritu found herself pigeonholed as a minority woman. Energized by this challenge, and struck by the extent of dilution that plagues foreign perspectives in American media, she began developing and producing films transcending the industry stereotypes - creating from the in-between: the space where identity isn't singular or fixed, where women actively unmake and remake themselves, where the personal and political meet in intimate, evolving ways, and where storytelling becomes an act of reclaiming ourselves.
Ritu's experiences as a filmmaker, actor, humanitarian, mother, South Asian woman, and immigrant shape the lens through which she tells stories. Her work lives in the quiet places where transformation happens - beneath appearances, between worlds, and in defiance of expectation.
