Hi, my name is Anjali Krishnakumar and I'm in my second year of an MFA programme in Screenwriting at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema. My primary focus is Screenwriting, but I chose to direct this project myself because I believe no one else can tell my stories as well or as sensitively as I can.

I wrote Jalapeño Khichidi when I was struggling to make sense of my identity as a student and as a first-generation immigrant to the United States. The actual film, a meditative drama about a young couple disagreeing about what it means to maintain one's identity in a new country, is inspired by an incident my mother experienced when my parents first moved to the U.S. A man, not understanding that Indian wedding customs and traditions are different, asked her why she didn't wear a wedding ring when she was clearly pregnant. Shocked and embarrassed she demanded a wedding ring from my father. Although this story is often relayed as a joke in our family I cannot help but wonder what it would have been like to have someone question her culture, traditions, and marital status in this new and foreign country.

I grew up in India after my parents moved back home, and only moved to the U.S. for grad school last year. As a result, I am constantly thinking about the intricacies of immigration and of my own relationship with food, community and culture.

This film is an attempt for me to grapple with my fractured identity and perhaps make some kind of peace with being an immigrant. I'm still not sure if I was able to fully come to terms with it through this project, perhaps there is a sequel in the works to deal with some unanswered questions.

In general, I feel like most of my work deals with being South Asian and the complex set of questions I struggle with daily. Although the media landscape is changing and there are definitely South Asians present in the film world, I still feel like first-generation immigrants are underrepresented and most stories seem to be about second-generation immigrants and their complicated relationship with their parents, the films are never about the parents who left everything behind to move to a new country. I want to explore the stories of the parents and the generations of people who chose to leave everything they know behind to make a change.

Although we have finished filming, I am raising money to help cover some of the costs of production as well as post-production (editing, scoring, colouring, etc). I am also planning a reshoot date as my story significantly changed once I began the editing process, we need to capture a little more footage to be able to complete the film and still have it work as a complete narrative. The money raised would go towards location costs and feeding my wonderful cast and crew. I would also love to raise enough money to be able to submit the film to a few festivals and use it as a platform to discuss South Asian identities and politics.