Film Producer & Entrepreneur, Ashi Dua was born in the Northern city of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. She spent most of her formative years attending boarding school in picturesque Nainital, in the foothills of the Himalayas. Post her schooling, she attended Hansraj College in Delhi for her undergraduate degree in History, which she earned with Honours.
Upon graduating, Ashi took on a string of internships at leading publishing houses and media organisations, as being a journalist was her original dream. Amid the frenzy of her journalism jobs and events, Ashi felt a strong calling for Mumbai. She moved to the Maximum City in 2005 to continue her education at St. Xavier’s College, from where she earned her graduate degree in Corporate Communications.
The hunger to learn new things and to experiment with original ideas always intrigued Ashi. This urge led her to attend a script-writing workshop with Bollywood Director, Anurag Kashyap, where she was introduced to the film industry and came to realise the potential she possessed to be a good film producer. A rank outsider to Bollywood, Ashi had little idea about the workings of the industry, but completely fell in love with the creative process when she assisted Kashyap on Dev D.
A quick learner, Ashi swiftly got a hang of the ropes of the industry and launched her own film production company – Flying Unicorn Entertainment – at the tender age of 24. Under her new banner, Ashi’s debut as a Producer was for the film, Bombay Talkies, which brought together four leading creatives – Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Karan Johar and Dibakar Banerjee – from the film industry to collaboratively create a film that celebrates cinema. The film was released to widespread critical acclaim and was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013.
Under the Flying Unicorn Entertainment banner, Ashi went on to produce a series of hit OTT titles, including Lust Stories (which was nominated for the 2019 International Emmy Award for the Best TV Movie/Mini-Series), Ghost Stories, Kaalakandi, Pitta Kathalu, The Right Note, and others. Today, Flying Unicorn Entertainment has some of Netflix’s biggest Indian titles under its belt
A bit of a serial entrepreneur, Ashi also co-founded The Dhoom Dhaam Company, along with her close friend and celebrity stylist, Tanya Ghavri. The idea for this venture came about when the duo noticed a gap in the market for a premium platform that unites luxury designers under one roof, while also providing a platform for lesser-known gems. And thus, The Dhoom Dhaam Company was founded in 2015 as an exclusive destination for festive shows, premium styling, and fashion production.
Ashi lives in Mumbai with her husband and young kids, whom she devotes a lot of her free time to. Also, being an avid music lover and travel junkie, when she’s not working, Ashi loves to travel the world and attend music festivals in different cities to soak in the culture and vibe of those places.
Read the full story that first appeared in Global Indian here:
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