Changemakers: Rajal Pitroda

If you want to change the world, what are the best tools available to you? Ask Rajal Pitroda MBA2013 and she’ll tell you there’s nothing as powerful as a good story well told.

Giving voice to the underrepresented and the marginalised is the passion that drives the career of the San-Francisco-based movie producer. Her vision is to “change the narrative”; to tell stories by those who have historically not been at the centre of creating and producing content, with the goal of bolstering understanding and shifting the status quo.

Pitroda’s documentaries explore critical social-justice issues of our time. She currently has two projects in various stages of production. The first addresses issues of race in the criminal justice system, while the second examines gender, relationships and ‘hook-up’ culture.

“I am driven by a desire to shift the narrative around issues that I feel are important, especially given our current cultural moment. I believe that storytelling has immense power in its capacity to fill your mind and move your perspective,” she says. “But a big part of shifting these narratives is changing who it is that is telling the story.

“One of my films addresses the legacy of injustice in the US by giving voice directly to communities of colour who have lived these experiences. Similarly, with gender, we hear straight from the protagonists; in this case young women inside the US college system who are navigating the complexities of relationships, sex and hook-ups.”

Pitroda is fascinated by power structures. Through her film-making she seeks to examine our perceptions of what power is, who has it and how power systems are set up to keep the powerful in place.

She cites examples from recent news and world events as issues she is keen to explore: “Within the Trump administration and with cases like the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, there is a lot of opportunity to look at how power systems are built, evolve and resist outside change or challenge. Film, and story in particular, has an extraordinary power to create space within all the noise.

“And it gives us an opportunity to rethink what we hear from the media, the press and elsewhere and listen to new perspectives.

“For me, the really interesting thing is empowering people whose stories have not been told, then working together on how we can shift the existing power structures that have been in place.”

Although her career has been played out in the entertainment industry since graduating in economics from the University of Michigan, film production was not always Pitroda’s focus. She started out in marketing and distribution, working in the movie industry in Mumbai: “My early career was very much focused on the business side, looking at how to build a better global brand for Indian films.