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Logline

Desperate to sell her childhood home, Nikita, a queer South Asian woman, discovers what’s making the place “unsellable”: the ghost of her deeply religious, recently deceased mother, who will do whatever it takes to get to Heaven.

Synopsis

When the neighborhood’s top realtor suspects paranormal activity in NIKITA (Rita Sengupta)’s childhood home, she gets stuck in a bind: How is she going to sell the place and move forward with her life? That is until Nikita discovers the source of the supernatural: the ghost of her recently deceased and somewhat estranged mother, PHILOMENA (Sakina Jaffrey).

Confused as to why she is still on Earth when she should be in Heaven, Philomena urges her daughter to help shepherd her into the afterlife- which Nikita finds a smidge hypocritical because of their lifelong disagreements about the entry requirements into heaven and Nikita’s supposed failure to meet them (a.k.a. her being gay).

Nikita and Philomena are forced to confront every conflict they’ve avoided about their belief systems, identities, and fraught relationship to accomplish two equally hard feats: getting into heaven and making a profit in the suburban New Jersey real estate market.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Rita Sengupta – Writer/Lead Actor/Producer
Rita Sengupta is a queer South Asian-American actor, writer, and comedian based in Brooklyn, NY. Most recently, she was one of the 30 authors selected to be a part of Brown Girl Magazine’s first print anthology, Untold: Defining Moments of the Uprooted, published by Mango and Marigold Press. Her short story about coming out has been featured in Vogue and Cosmopolitan as top LGBTQ books to read. She was recently one of the featured performers in Kutti Gang’s comedy special on PBS All Arts network. Rita’s work has also been featured by WNYC, Buzzfeed, and Glamour Magazine. ritasengupta.com

Jyostna Hariharan – Writer
Jyotsna Hariharan is a screenwriter originally from Madurai, India, currently based in New York. Her plays have been produced by the Hypokrit Theater and HarperAudio, with her audio play Rebuttal nominated for a 2018 Audie Award for Best Original Work. Her fantasy-comedy pilot has been recognized by the Fusion Film Festival, Made In NY/WGAE Writers Room, and the Sundance Episodic Lab. You can find her humor writing in The New Yorker, McSweeneys Internet Tendency, Points In Case, and more. She is currently part of the Salon Mentorship Program for South Asian artists. MFA 17′, NYU Tisch School of the Arts. jyotsnahariharan.com

J. Mehr Kaur – Director/Producer
J. Mehr Kaur is a director & producer for film & theatre. Fueled by her experiences coming up in Punjabi, Sikh and queer communities, Mehr is drawn to create work that explores human resilience and transformation through the lens of her multicultural identity. Recent credits include Kultar’s Mime, a movement theatre piece written in verse, which toured internationally across six countries and Emraa a short doc film about the experiences of Muslim-American women. As an entertainment professional, Mehr has worked at Amazon Studios, Esmail Corp and is currently at Netflix. MFA, Peter Stark Producing Program, USC School of Cinematic Arts; BA Smith College; Colt Coeur Resident Artist, Williamstown Theatre Festival Directing Corps member, and Manhattan Theatre Club Directing Fellow. jmehrkaur.com

Alisha Bhowmik – Producer
Alisha Bhowmik is a queer South Asian filmmaker based in Brooklyn. She is a graduate of NYU Tisch. She has produced and directed short films and videos that have premiered or been featured in Huffington Post, Refinery29, NYLON and PAPER magazine. Her films have screened at Asian American International Film Festival by Asian Cinevision, Cucalorus Film Festival, New Generations Film Festival in Frankfurt, GE. She’s a finalist for the Future of Film is Female grant and has won a Sundance Collab Challenge. Other films she has worked on have been a Vimeo Staff Pick and won an Oscar. She is a producer on the debut indie SAG feature film Dead End from directors Abigail Horton & Ryan Dickie. She currently works as an Associate Producer at advertising agency, Droga5. She is a member of A-Doc, Kalakars, Filmshop, and Brown Girls Doc Mafia. alishabhowmik.com

D’Lo – Executive Producer
D’Lo is a queer/transgender Tamil-Sri Lankan-American actor/writer/comic. His work ranges solo theater and stand up, tv/film, plays, essays and poetry. His acting credits include: Bros, Looking, Transparent, Sense 8, and Mr. Robot, and web series Eastsiders, Dyke Central, including a leading role in a ColorCreative & Project Greenlight produced Minimum Wage, and finally his very own web series Private Dick. He also plays the role of Gio in upcoming feature film Death & Bowling and is in post-production for a buddy comedy short film he wrote featuring D’Lo and Shakina Nayfack called Ro & Shirelle. He also is working on a scripted series based on his life with Sameer Gardezi’s Break the Room Media (BTR) that is set up at Paul Feig’s Powderkeg Media.

Neeraj Jain – Cinematographer
Neeraj Jain is an Indian American cinematographer and producer based out of Los Angeles and New York. He has shot projects in both the United States and India. During his time at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, he earned the Faculty Commendation in Cinematography. He has also been mentored by cinematographers such as Rodrigo Prieto A.S.C., Tom Houghton A.S.C., and Ben Kutchins. His first feature film The Sound of The Wind (2020) released with many critics praising the cinematography of the film. Most recently, he shot the second season of Zoya Akhtar’s Made in Heaven (2022) for Amazon Prime.

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