Arastu Zakia

About

1988 Born in Ahmedabad
2003 · Age 15 Reborn. Left my house with my Mother.
2006 · Age 18 Founded a non-profit that worked with young people - 'The Difference'
2012 · Age 24 Was cofounder & CEO at EdTech Startup democratizing College selection - CollegeBol
2017 · Age 29 Joined Careers360 as Chief Product Officer
2018 · Age 30 Married the love of my life after a very long, eventful courtship
2019 · Age 31 Moved to Bombay to pursue my lifelong dream of filmmaking
2020 · Age 32 Began writing my first feature 'Zakia' with co-writer Anup
2023 · Age 35 Got my first big commissioned project as Writer - A historical biopic
2023 · Age 35 Frustrated at not getting to make my feature, self-produced a short version of it - my debut directorial - 'Riha'
2023 · Age 35 Became a Father with the birth of my Son - Ziv
2025 · Age 37 Became a Father again with the birth of my daughter - Inara
2025 · Age 37 Finished my second directorial short 'Rise'
2026 · Age 38 'Riha' won Best Short Film (Hindi) at the ZEE Short Film Contest and became the first release of my life

I'm a director and screenwriter and my debut feature is about to begin pre-production. Am also writing an international series for Vikramaditya Motwane and a commissioned biopic produced by and starring Vikrant Massey. Past commissions include a historical feature for Ratpack Stories and an action feature for producer Nikhil Dwivedi.

My original features, co-written with other writers, include the epic kushti drama 'Akhada' - selected among the top 6 scripts out of 1450 at the SWA Pitch Fest, my autobiographical feature 'Zakia' - selected for the Rewrite Script Lab, and the RomCom 'Chuppi'. The First Draft Directors' Fellowship also picked me as one of six directors.

My short film 'Riha' won 'Best Short Film - Hindi' at the Zee Short Film Contest, from 7000 entries. It screened at BISFF (India's only Oscar-qualifying festival), Tasveer (the only South Asian Oscar-qualifier) and DIFF, before releasing on ZEE5. 'Rise', my latest short, was featured in the 'Recommends' section of the Viewing Room at NFDC's Mumbai International Film Festival. On stage, 'Khaansi with Karan', a comedy I wrote and directed for Micro-Theatre, ran multiple shows at venues including the NCPA.

Shaped by a difficult childhood, I studied Commerce and Sociology, was a Venture Design Fellow at Stanford CDR & AU's VentureStudio and went onto work across education and social impact - as founder of an NGO, CEO of an EdTech startup and CPO at Careers360.

Today, I’m a father of two, my most loved and defining role.

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