Who Is Payal Kapadia? From Protesting Against FTII Ex-Chairman Gajendra Chauhan To Winning India's First Grand Prix Award At Cannes 2024

Filmmaker Payal Kapadia scripted history as she became the first ever Indian to win the prestigious Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival for her film, 'All We Imagine As Light'. The film was the first Indian film in over three decades to get screened for the main competition at Cannes.

While Payal Kapadia is getting all the love and recognition she deserves, little do people know that back in 2015, she was the one who led one of the biggest protests at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) against the appointment of actor-turned-politician Gajendra Chauhar as the chairman.

Who is Payal Kapadia?

In 2015, Payal was one of the leading names and faces in the 138-day long protest at FTII. The students had claimed that Chauhan lacked the vision to be the chairman of the prestigious film institution.

To mark her dissent, she, along with other students, boycotted their classes and protested for over four months.

As the protest raged, she was slapped with disciplinary action and the FTII also cut her grant.

However, after Chauhan's tenure as the FTII chairman ended, the premiere institute had announced to support Kapadia in 2017, who was then in her third year of the course, for her short film Afternoon Clouds that was selected at the 70th Cannes Film Festival.

Payal Kapadia scripts history

As Payal won the Grand Prix award at Cannes 2024, she thanked the leading ladies of her film, Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha and Chhaya Kadam, and stated that they were equally deserving of the award as she was.

All We Imagine As Light is a story of friendship of three women, who come from very different backgrounds, but find solace in each other.

Soon after the historic win, several Bollywood actors and filmmakers congratulated Payal on social media. Kiara Advani, Anurag Kashyap, Radhika Apte, Swara Bhasker, Richa Chadha, Bhumi Pednekar, Shekhar Kapur and others lauded the young filmmaker for the feat.