Sabrina Dhawan is an Indian screenwriter and producer, born in England and raised in Delhi, India.
Dhawan is an Associate Professor and the Area Head of Screenwriting at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She has been commissioned to write for many large companies including Disney, HBO, ABC Family and 20th Century Fox.[1] She has taught at filmmaking labs all over the world.
Dhawan is most well known for Monsoon Wedding, a 2001 film directed by Mira Nair; and for Cosmopolitan, a 2003 American cross-cultural romance film directed by Nisha Ganatra and broadcast on PBS. She also wrote the segment "India" (directed by Mira Nair) in 11'09"01 September 11, a series of short films for Canal Plus in 2002.[2]
Dhawan's short film Saanjh - As Night Falls was awarded the Best of the Festival at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films. It also received the Audience Award at Angelus Awards; and was voted "Most Original Film," by New Line Cinema at the Polo Ralph Lauren New Works Festival in 2000.[3]
Dhawan has a brief acting cameo in Monsoon Wedding as a wedding guest.
Early Life
Dhawan was born in England, raised in Delhi and currently resides in New York City. Dhawan graduated from Columbia University's Graduate Film Program in 2001 with a Masters of Fine Arts in Film.[3]
Her student short film Saanjh - As Night Falls has been extremely successful since its release in 2000, making it one of the last pieces Dhawan created in her MFA program.
Personal Life
In 2006, Dhawan married Steve Cohen, who wrote the screenplay for The Bachelor (1999) starring Chris O'Donnell and Renée Zellweger. Her husband, unfortunately, passed away 6 years later on September 29th, 2012.[4]
Dhawan currently lives in New York City with their son, Kabir.[1]
Career
Graduating from Columbia in 2001, the same year as the release of Monsoon Wedding, Dhawan's career was almost immediate. In fact, Dhawan wrote the first draft of the screenplay while she was still in school - it only took her about a week.[5] The film was premiered in the Marché du Filmsection of the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for various awards, including a Golden Globe.
Dhawan assisted in creating a broadway adaptation of Monsoon Wedding that was supposed to premiere in 2014; however, the production is still under development and is planned to make its debut sometime in 2016.[6]
Sabrina Dhawan - Screenwriter Choice {List of Preliminary Sources}
- Stub article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabrina_Dhawan
- Monsoon Wedding Wikipedia: [[1]]
- IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0223526/
Bio's:
- NYU professor bio: https://tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/dramatic-writing/109238575
- Columbia bio: http://arts.columbia.edu/film/sabrina-dhawan
- Sikh film festival judges bio: http://www.sikharts.com/ff2009_judges_dhawan.html
- Maisha film lab bio: http://maishafilmlab.org/maisha-mentor/sabrina-dhawan/
Academic - Through Concordia Libraries (password required):
- Kylie boltin article about Mira: http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=ffefc082-ef8c-49e1-8955-a1836da36802%40sessionmgr114&vid=1&hid=122
- South Asia women contemporary (page 33): http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=46f9ba3a-2af8-49b8-bf12-5620932d2db9%40sessionmgr120&vid=1&hid=122
Other:
- Economic times article: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-01-26/news/46601975_1_monsoon-wedding-mira-nair-sabrina-dhawan
- Santabanta interview: http://www.santabanta.com/bollywood/64747/writing-is-quite-a-thankless-job-sabrina-dhawan/
- http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/mira-nairs-monsoon-wedding-set-to-open-on-broadway-in-2016/1/496374.html
- ^ a b "Sabrina Dhawan". tisch.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
- ^ "Sabrina Dhawan". The Hindu. 2013-12-02. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
- ^ a b "Sabrina Dhawan". arts.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
- ^ "Steven L. Cohen's Obituary on Rochester Democrat And Chronicle". Rochester Democrat And Chronicle. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
- ^ Muir, John Kenneth (2006). Mercy in her eyes: the films of Mira Nair. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 166–7.
- ^ "Confirmed: Monsoon Wedding to open on Broadway in 2016". indiatoday.intoday.in. Retrieved 2016-03-08.