Abhi Indrekar

Abhi is an award winning independent documentary filmmaker and editor raised in the traditions of street theatre activism and community-based art in India. He is a recipient of the prestigious Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship 2024-2025. Born into one of India’s “Denotified and Nomadic Tribes” or “DNT” communities, Abhi identifies as a twice-colonized person — first by the label of inborn criminality applied by the British at the height of their colonial power, and second by the ongoing stigma wielded by a mainstream Indian society still ruled by caste and class hierarchy. Drawing from his upbringing in political street theater, Abhi sees cinema as an important ground for an ever-evolving decolonizing practice. Abhi has over a decade’s experience in documentary editing with some of India’s most respected and daring socio-political filmmakers, including Anand Patwardhan, Dakxin Chhara and Nakul Singh Sawhney. He has worked on documentary and fiction films. Since coming to the US, Abhi’s credits have included Trevor Noah’s Turning Point series for MSNBC and Peacock TV, the World Channel at GBH Boston and PBS, Untold: Netflix, Black Voters Matter documentary among other independent documentary projects.