2× Oscar-considered filmmaker

Trupti Bhoir

Actress & ProducerDirectorWriterPhilanthropistStoryteller

Two decades of cinema with a conscience — from the Marathi stage in 2003 to PARO (2026), a debut Hindi film that carried the fight against bride slavery to Cannes, Harvard and the Oscar eligibility list.

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Portrait of Trupti Bhoir in a grey and gold saree

2×Oscar eligibility
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8,500+lives empowered by
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About

Cinema isn't a career. It's a movement.

Trupti Bhoir began on the Marathi theatre stage in 2003. In 2006 she began producing her own films, so she could tell the stories others wouldn't.

Across nine films as producer, writer, director and lead actress, she has taken on farmer distress, mental health, body shaming, terrorism, child marriage, cyber-crime and human trafficking. Touring Talkies helped change the law for India's travelling cinemas, and Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman adopted one of them.

In 2020, during the pandemic, she founded Shelter Foundation. It now runs skill training, relief work and free schooling for tribal communities in Maharashtra's Palghar district, and documents bride trafficking in Haryana's Mewat region.

Actress
Producer
Director
Writer
Philanthropist
Censor Board Member
National Jury Member
TEDx Speaker

Her journey

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Years on stage & screen

Films produced, each with a social cause

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Films on the Oscar eligibility list

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Lives empowered by Shelter Foundation

PARO — The Untold Story of Bride Slavery, Oscar contention poster

Festival de CannesMarché du Film 2025

Oscar eligibility list2026

Best ActressLA Tribune IFF 2025

Raindance34th Official Selection

Spotlight · Debut Hindi film

PARO

The Untold Story of Bride Slavery

In Mewat, across Haryana and Rajasthan, women are bought and sold as brides. Locals call them Paro or Molki. The practice grows out of skewed sex ratios and poverty. Trupti wrote, produced and plays the lead in the film. She calls it “not cinema, but a movement” against human trafficking.

ProducerWriterLead Actress

2024
Inaugurated at Cannes
The first look at Paro was unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival in France.
March 2025
UN Women · CSW69 / Beijing+30
Panelist at “The Power of Her Voice: Amplifying the Voices and Visions of Women in Global Cinema”.
March 2025
LA Fashion Week premiere screening
On International Women's Day, Shelter Foundation announced a collaboration with LA Fashion Week. The event hosted its first-ever film screening, featuring Paro.
May 2025
Standing ovation at Cannes
A full-house screening at the 78th Marché du Film, Festival de Cannes.
2025
Best Actress + Global Voice in Film
Two awards at the Los Angeles Tribune International Film Festival (LATIFF).
2025
Harvard, Oxford & TEDx
Special screening at Harvard Kennedy School. A screening and Q&A at Balliol College, Oxford. A talk on the film's global impact at TEDx Manhattan Beach.
September 2025
Bollywood Festival Norway
Best Actress recognition, presented alongside Norway's Culture Minister and India's Ambassador.
2026
Oscar eligibility list & Raindance
Paro entered the Oscar eligibility list and was selected for the 34th Raindance Film Festival (Best International Feature category).

Filmography

Nine films. Nine causes.

Every production takes on a social issue, and several led to real change on the ground. The work spans Marathi and Hindi cinema, and she has held nearly every role behind and in front of the camera.

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012008

Tujhya Mazhya Sansarala Ani Kay Hav

Producer · Lead Actress

Social impactAn inspiring farmer's story promoting farming. State awards for best music & singers.

022009

Paule Khoona

Producer · Lead Actress

Social impactMental health awareness.

032010

Agadbam

Producer · Lead Actress

Social impactBody shaming: its effects and how to overcome them. Guinness World Record for full-body prosthetic makeup.

042011

Hello Jai Hind

Producer · Lead Actress

Social impactA voice against terrorism.

052013

Touring Talkies

Producer · Writer · Lead Actress

★ Oscar eligibility list 2014

Social impactA fight to save India's touring cinema culture. It changed the travel-restriction law, brought subsidies and NOCs for touring cinemas, and A.R. Rahman adopted one.

062015

Married in the Womb

Producer · Writer · Director

Social impactThe fight against child marriage.

072017

Majha Agadbam

Producer · Writer · Director · Lead Actress

Social impactWomen are not powerless.

082026

Paro — The Untold Story of Bride Slavery

Producer · Writer · Lead Actress

★ Oscar eligibility list 2026

Social impactA movement against human trafficking and bride slavery.

092025

#Threat

Producer · Writer · Director · Actress

Social impactCyber-bullying, “cyber arrest” scams and cyber-security awareness.

Career highlights

From the Marathi stage to the world stage

2003

Stage debut

Began her career as a Marathi theatre actress.

2006

Producing her own films

Started her own production house to make socially driven cinema.

2008

First production, first awards

Tujhya Mazhya Sansarala Ani Kay Hav won state awards for Ajay–Atul's music and for its singers.

2010

Guinness World Record

Agadbam: first female actor to wear full-body prosthetic makeup. Won the State Award for Best Actress.

2014

Touring Talkies on the Oscar eligibility list

Selected at festivals in Australia, Hungary, Japan, Indonesia, The Hague, Chicago and Los Angeles. Won Best Actress in Japan.

2020

Shelter Foundation

Founded her NGO during the Covid pandemic to serve tribal communities in Palghar.

2024

Paro at Cannes · National Jury

First Hindi film inaugurated at Cannes. Jury member for the 70th National Film Awards.

2025

Censor Board · TEDx · Global screenings

Appointed to the Censor Board. Spoke at TEDx Manhattan Beach. Paro screened at Cannes, Harvard, Oxford, UN Women and the National Commission for Women (NCW).

2026

Second Oscar eligibility · Cannes jury · NCW

Paro entered the Oscar eligibility list and was selected for Raindance. Jury member at the Cannes International Film Festival Film Bazaar. Fact Finding Committee Member & Consultant, National Commission for Women (NCW).

Honours & recognition

Awards that amplify the cause

Recognition from state award juries, international festivals and city and state governments in the U.S. One honour stands out: she shared the Jagran Film Festival's Best Actress honour with the late Sridevi.

2025

Best Actress & Global Voice in Film

Los Angeles Tribune International Film Festival: Paro

2025

Best Actress: Certificate of Recognition

Bollywood Festival Norway: Paro

2025

Certificates of Recognition

City of Los Angeles, City of Artesia & California Legislature

2024

Dr. Sarojini Naidu International Award for Working Women

International Chamber of Media & Entertainment Industry (ICMEI)

2024

Jury Member, 70th National Film Awards

Feature Films, West panel: Ministry of Information & Broadcasting

2014

Best Actress: Certificate of Merit

Jaipur International Film Festival: Touring Talkies

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Best Actress, Japan Film Festival

Plus Best Actress nominations at the Kerala, Jaipur & Jagran festivals

2011

Best Actress nomination: State Awards

Hello Jai Hind

2010

Best Actress: State Award & Guinness World Record

Agadbam, also nominated for Best Comedy Actor

2008

State Awards: Best Music & Best Singer

For her first production, plus her own Best Choreographer nomination for “Gorya Gorya Galavari”

Certificates & citations

Shelter Foundation · Est. 2020

Safety, dignity and a voice for the underserved

Shelter Foundation started during the Covid lockdowns, working with tribal communities in Maharashtra's Palghar district. Village women there were working in chemical factories that put their health at risk. The foundation trained more than 8,500 people and helped them into safer jobs. It has since expanded to Haryana and onto the global stage.

Visit shelterfoundation.in

Adopted school: Shanti Ratan Vidyamandir

Free education for 960 tribal students in Grades 6–12 in Palghar.

New borewell for clean water
Science & computer lab inaugurated
Regular teacher salaries restored

Skills & livelihoods

Skill-development programmes for underprivileged women in Palghar, Dahanu and across Jawhar, Wada, Vikramgad and Mokhada (2022–2024).

8,500+ trained & placed in safe employment
Art & craft material distribution

Relief & essential services

Food, blankets, saris, school supplies and medical camps, including a winter relief drive in remote Vavar-Vangani, Jawhar (Dec 2024 – Feb 2025).

Mewat bride-slavery survey

Since 2022 the foundation has been documenting “Paro” brides in Nuh, Haryana and parts of Rajasthan. Close to 5,000 cases are recorded so far across 37+ villages, and the count is still growing.

0+Lives empowered

0+Trained for safe employment

0Students in free education

0+Mewat villages surveyed

Rooted in Palghar

The tarpa dance

Warli painting is the tribal art of Palghar district, home to the communities Shelter Foundation works with. Its best-known scene is the tarpa dance: villagers circling the tarpa player, hand in hand. The dancing figures of the Trupti Bhoir Filmss emblem come from the same tradition.