Up and coming producer-director Gauri Chadda has had a dream start. Not only has she assisted on Hollywood and Bollywood projects like Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol (2011) and Gandhi of the Month (2012), but her recent short film Gawah, revolving around three different major events in India — the 1947 partition, the 26/11 terror attacks and the 13/7 blasts in Mumbai — has won awards at several international film festivals this year, including one for best direction for her in London.

The 27-year-old, who moved back to India from the UAE, says, "For me, cinema is about expression. That's the reason I made Gawah. I still remember going to Zaveri Bazaar the day after the blasts to meet the victims and understand what they were going through. My film is not an enactment; rather it delves into human relationships."

Having studied at the University of Miami (where she graduated in Film and Theater Studies) as well as the prestigious Met Film School at Ealing Studios in London, she now has her sights firmly set on Bollywood. "I've been intrigued by the way the industry functions here. There's a certain kind of pulse here... people work with their hearts. The next step is definitely feature films," says Gauri, who has set up her own production house, Chasing Frames Productions, in Mumbai.