Nisha Pahuja is producer, writer and director of the NFB co-production documentary To Kill A Tiger. The director of the Oscar-nominated film learned how to 'event-ize' screenings to get the film to audiences and boost exposure, and to help earn an Academy Award nomination.The story starts about six years before the film’s September, 2022, premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
She started working her contact list. “If I really believe in what I’m doing, it’s not hard to make those calls,” she says. “When people say no, I call the next person.” On Aug. 14 last year, the trade papers announced that Mindy Kaling and Dev Patel had become executive producers. Pahuja raised $300,000 that day.Ranjit’s daughter looking out in a field in the documentary To Kill A Tiger. The Oscar-nominated film documents a father's fight for justice after his daughter was raped.
This year, 167 documentaries were eligible for an Oscar, including features about Jon Batiste and Michael J. Fox, and moving work about Mariupol and Alzheimer’s disease. The documentary branch narrowed that down to a shortlist of 15, announced Dec. 21. Around 1 p.m. that day, Pahuja’s phone started pinging and didn’t stop. She was “over the moon,” she recalls.
“Ted sent the screening invite across his ListServe, and that was it,” Pahuja says. “The energy around the film exploded.”