About
Arastu Zakia is a Director & Screenwriter currently writing an international series for Vikramaditya Motwane. He is also writing a commissioned biopic, produced by and starring Vikrant Massey. He has written a historical commissioned feature for Ratpack Stories and an action feature for producer Nikhil Dwivedi.
His directed short film 'Riha' won the Best Short Film — Hindi award at the Zee Short Film Contest, selected from nearly 7,000 entries, and screened at BISFF (India's only Oscar-qualifying festival), Tasveer (the only South Asian Oscar-qualifier) and DIFF. His latest short, 'Rise', was featured in the 'Recommends' section of the Viewing Room at NFDC's Mumbai International Film Festival. His autobiographical feature 'Zakia' was selected for the Rewrite Lab and he was one of six directors chosen for the First Draft Directors' Fellowship.
Shaped by a difficult childhood, Arastu studied Commerce and Sociology, was a Venture Design Fellow at Stanford CDR & AU's VentureStudio and went on to work across education and social impact — as founder of an NGO, CEO of an EdTech startup and CPO at Careers360. Today, he is a devoted father of two, his most loved and defining role.