We are thrilled to announce our New Year’s special interview with the one and only Rucha Humnabadkar! She is the director of one of my favorite movies- For Here or To Go. If you have listened to my show in the past, you may have heard me speak about the movie more than once. The movie portrays a hilarious take on the broken legal immigration system. The movie received the Jury Award at the Seattle South Asian Film Festival in 2015. In my opinion, this movie is a powerful advocacy tool to reform the broken legal immigration system. 
Rucha Humnabadkar is known for her work with acclaimed Indian filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor. As Assistant Director and Art Director she was instrumental in delivering indie hits such as Hyderabad Blues, Rockford and Bollywood Calling. Rucha’s directorial debut, short film Arranged Marriage, played at festivals in 2012 prior to being selected for inclusion in the Smithsonian Asian Heritage 2015-2020 traveling exhibit “Beyond Bollywood.” For Here or To Go? is her first feature film.
In addition, Rucha’s debut novel Dance of the Fireflies, 2006, based on the lives of India’s street children, received critical acclaim. She’s also written and directed three English language plays and won the ‘Young Achiever’s award,’ for contribution to theatre in Pune, India, 1999.
Rucha attended the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking and also has a Master’s in Design from Carnegie Mellon University. She worked as a user experience designer at eBay and StubHub in Silicon Valley, California. She lives in San Francisco and is very excited to be part of the Bay Area filmmaking community.
I met Rucha at the Seattle South Asian Film Festival and am in awe of her work. She and the entire movie team did an amazing job taking a very complicated subject matter and humanizing the issues surrounding immigration in a simple manner. I cannot wait for you to listen to her and learn more about the movie. The movie is not available in theaters yet. If you are interested in watching, listen to the show!
Rucha will be on my talk show “Immigration with Tahmina Watson”at 10 am on January 5th on Desi 1250 AM. You can tune into your radio at 1250 AM or listen online at www.desi1250am.com. Please call into the show if you have questions!