Starch is inspired by my parents' early years in Sydney, Australia after immigrating from India. It is a family drama, an immigrant story, a comedy about dealing with your in-laws, and for me, a piece of family memorabilia.
I want Starch to capture a different side of the immigrant experience - one that doesn't cast us as victims. Though my parents faced economic and social hardships in those times, their brazenness, humour and courage tells the kind of story I want to share with the world.
Ajai Vishwanath is a filmmaker and visual artist from Sydney, Australia, currently based in New York City. His debut solo exhibition, Adoxography, opened at Google San Francisco in 2017, and his films and paintings have been shown across Australia and the United States.
Ajai is pursuing an MFA in Filmmaking at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he is a Robert Jahn scholar and a Maurice Kanbar scholar. Prior to NYU, Ajai completed his BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics with a concentration in Globalisation and a minor in Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania, and spent four years as the Head of Marketing at an Artificial Intelligence company in San Francisco.
You can learn more about Ajai at ajaivishwanath.com
