Mandrika Rupa

Mandrika Rupa is an Indian- New Zealand filmmaker and community worker. She is a member of The Kshetra Collective, a diverse group of artists in New Zealand of Indian heritage.

Biography Rupa was born in Gujarat, India and moved to New Zealand in 1960. Jaga Rupa settled in the Waikato and became a hawker.

A trip to India in 1993 prompted Rupa's journey into filmmaking. Taamara/Sangam (The Joining of Two Peoples) 2004 Director & Writer Accounts from Māori of the story of a group of Indian men settled in Te Uku in the early 1900s. Māori, Hindi Laxmi 1998 Director & Writer Life in colonial New Zealand through an Indian diasporic lens. English Naya Zamana 1996 Director & Producer A documentary about queer experiences in a family of South Pacific Indian heritage. Hindi Poonam 1994 Director & Writer Documentary about three Indian women who migrated with their families to New Zealand around the 1890s. I'm Not Here 1994 Director English

Rupa's short film Poonam (1994) is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.