Lipika Singh Darai

Belonging to the Indigenous community HO from Odisha, Lipika SINGH DARAI (India) is a filmmaker and editor based in Bhubaneswar. She studied at the Film and Television Institute of India, specialising in film sound recording and designing. Darai has directed and edited several documentaries and short fiction films, often rooted in the region she belongs to and in Odia language. She won Best Debut Film of a Director at India’s National Film Awards in 2013 for A Tree a Man a Sea (2012). Darai has explored themes of social justice in The Waterfall (2016), a documentary about struggles to protect a dying waterfall shown in schools across India, and humanitarian crises in Some Stories Around Witches (2015).

Filmography

A Tree A Man A Sea (2013, short doc), Dragonfly and Snake (2014, short doc), The Waterfall (2016, short), The Sound Man Mangesh Desai (2018, co-dir), Backstage (2021, doc), Raati o bhaya/Night and Fear (2023, short)