Swati Bhise is a classically trained Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer, educator, writer, producer, and director. She is the director, writer, and producer of The Warrior Queen of Jhansi, the first Hollywood action film with an Indian female lead, released worldwide in 2019. She served as executive producer and Indian cultural consultant on The Man Who Knew Infinity, starring Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and screened at The White House. She is the founder of the Warrior Queen Project, a non-profit dedicated to closing the gender gap and empowering women, and the Sadir Theater Festival in Goa, which introduced Chinese KunQu opera to India. For four decades, she represented Indian culture in New York, founding Sanskriti Centre and creating original Carnatic-jazz fusion works performed at the Newport Jazz Festival and Jazz at Lincoln Center. She is the recipient of the 2023 Asian Arts Game Changer & Visionary Award by the Asia Society and the 2022 Leadership Award by the Arts4All Foundation.
Her book:
A Dance of Patrons, Gods and Brides