Pavitra Chalam was a national-champion roller skater and athlete for over a decade before embarking on her journey as a filmmaker.
Pavitra represented India as a Peace Ambassador to Pakistan in 2003. As part of the Youth Initiative for Peace in Pakistan, she directed her first film ‘Bus’, a statement of peace between both countries. Pavitra traveled across Europe in 2004 as an Ambassador for a U.N project on social change and used film as a medium to ignite the minds of young people in France, Spain, Germany, UK. In Ireland she was recognized as a front-runner for film and sustainability.
She followed up these experiences with a formal Masters degree in film-making at the New York Film Academy. Her thesis ‘Anamika – Her Glorious Past’ was selected for the sixth IAAC Film Festival, 2006 in New York, received critical acclaim at the Indian Film Festival, Los Angeles, 2007 and had a special screening in Washington at the World Bank.
Pavitra founded CurleyStreet Media (CSM) in 2012, an award-winning film production house focused on candid and emotional storytelling. Over the years Pavitra has chosen to tell stories about the under-represented, the uncomfortable, the awkward and the complex nature of being human.