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{{Short description|Indian filmmaker, film theorist, and archaeologist (born 1972)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2025}}
'''Ashish Avikunthak''' (born 1972) is an Indian [[avant-garde]] filmmaker, [[film theorist]], archaeologist and cultural anthropologist.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/bengali-film-makes-it-to-berlin-festival/articleshow/56708734.cms|title=Bengali film makes it to Berlin festival - Times of India|newspaper=The Times of India |date=22 January 2017 |publisher=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://today.uri.edu/news/uri-associate-professors-experimental-film-to-be-screened-at-berlin-film-festival-in-february/|title=URI associate professor's experimental film to be screened at Berlin Film Festival in February|website=today.uri.edu}}</ref> His works have been screened at art galleries and private screenings, including [[Tate Modern]], [[Centre Pompidou|Centre George Pompidou]], [[Pacific Film Archive]];<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wire |first=A. B. |date=2014-10-21 |title=Ashish Avikunthak's innovative film 'Rati Chakravyuh' to be screened at the Aicon Gallery in New York |url=https://www.americanbazaaronline.com/2014/10/21/ashish-avikunthaks-innovative-film-rati-chakravyuh-screened-aicon-gallery-new-york/ |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=The American Bazaar |language=en-US}}</ref> along with [[International Film Festival Rotterdam|Rotterdam]], [[Locarno Film Festival|Locarno]], [[BFI London Film Festival|London]] film festivals, among others.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Ashish Avikunthak |url=https://chatterjeeandlal.com/artists/ashish-avikunthak/ |website=[[Chatterjee & Lal]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ashish Chadha |url=https://web.uri.edu/harrington/meet/ashish-chadha/ |access-date=2024-08-02 |language=en-US}}</ref> He is a professor of film media at Harrington School of Communication, [[University of Rhode Island]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Ashish Avikunthak by Arun A.K. - BOMB |url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2022/11/07/ashish-avikunthak/ |publisher=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ashish Chadha |url=https://www.uri.edu/features/ashish-chadha/ |access-date=2024-06-12 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-12-22 |title='Devastated' world premiere at Rotterdam film festival |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/devastated-world-premiere-at-rotterdam-film-festival-kolkata-ashish-avikunthaks-political-film-vidhvastha-devastated/articleshow/106196514.cms |access-date=2024-06-12 |work=The Times of India |issn=0971-8257}}</ref> In 2025, he received the Ground Glass Award from Prismatic Ground, the New York–based festival of experimental documentary and avant-garde film, in recognition of his "outstanding contributions to the field of experimental media."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Srinivasan |first=Srikanth |date=2025-04-28 |title=Film Comment Recommends: Kumar Shahani and Ashish Avikunthak at Prismatic Ground |url=https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/film-comment-recommends-kumar-shahani-and-ashish-avikunthak-at-prismatic-ground/ |access-date=2025-06-02 |website=Film Comment |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bose |first=Swapnil Dhruv |date=2025-04-28 |title=Ritualistic ruminations: An Ashish Avikunthak retrospective |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/ritualistic-ruminations-ashish-avikunthak-retrospective/ |access-date=2025-06-02 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Film Professor Ashish Avikunthak wins the[sic] The Ground Glass Award at Prismatic Ground |url=https://web.uri.edu/artsci/uncategorized/film-professor-ashish-avikunthak-wins-the-the-ground-glass-award-at-prismatic-ground/ |access-date=2025-06-02 |language=en-US}}</ref>

He is considered to be an iconoclastic film artist<ref>{{cite web|url= https://artreview.com/vidvastha-devastated-ashish-avikunthak-review/|title= Vidvastha (Devastated) Review: The Bizarre and the Bhagavad Gita - ArtReview|publisher=}}</ref> who works outside Indian mainstream cinema.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/ashish-avikunthak-making-cinema-from-margins/|title= Far Out Meets: Ashish Avikunthak on making cinema from the margins - Far Out|date= 18 November 2021|publisher=}}</ref> His films explore [[Indian philosophy]] and [[existentialism]] and are categorized by their use of unorthodox cinematography and editing. Avikunthak films are rooted in Indian religion, epistemology, ritual and form.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/eyes-wide-open-2/|title=Eyes Wide Open|date=29 July 2015|publisher=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bhatnagar |first=Tanushi |date=2021-08-17 |title=Art-House Filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak On How Philosophy Influences His Work |url=https://rollingstoneindia.com/art-house-filmmaker-ashish-avikunthak-interview/ |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=Rolling Stone India |language=en-US}}</ref> Mythical, metaphysical, metaphorical and mundane elements are found in his work.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report-i-m-disillusioned-with-modernity-says-filmmaker-ashish-avikunthak-2090754|title=I'm disillusioned with modernity, says filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak|date=31 May 2015|publisher=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=To Kill A Thinking Bird: A Brief Retrospective On Ashish Avikunthak's Films {{!}} Grazia India |url=https://www.grazia.co.in/people/to-kill-a-thinking-bird-a-brief-retrospective-on-ashish-avikunthaks-films-8111.html |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=www.grazia.co.in |language=en}}</ref> [[ArtReview]] describes his works as: "Avikunthak's works insist on an Indian epistemology while utilising a rigorously formal visual language that is clearly aware of Western avant-garde practices such as those of [[Andrei Tarkovsky]] and [[Samuel Beckett]]. These are self-consciously difficult works that are filmed in a self-consciously beautiful way."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://artreview.com/features/2014_futuregreats_ashish_avikunthak/|title=Ashish Avikunthak by Niru Ratnam / ArtReview|first=Site|last=name|website=artreview.com}}</ref> In his essay "Cinema of ''Prayoga''", [[Amrit Gangar]] names Avikunthak's films as an example of his eponymous strain of filmmaking.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Srinivasan |first=Srikanth |date=2012-06-02 |title=Cinema of Prayoga |url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/cinema/cinema-of-prayoga/article3483118.ece |website=[[The Hindu]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2015 |title=Cinema of Prayoga |url=https://experimenta.in/cinema-of-prayoga/ |website=experimenta.in}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Laali |date=2015 |title=CINEMA OF PRAYOGA: INDIAN AVANT-GARDE CINEMA |url=https://mubi.com/en/lists/cinema-of-prayoga-indian-avant-garde-cinema |website=[[MUBI]]}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Ashish Avikunthak was born in Jabalpur in 1972<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2021 |title=AN IDIOM UNTO ITSELF: AN ASHISH AVIKUNTHAK RETROSPECTIVE |url=https://mubi.com/en/in/collections/avikunthak |website=[[MUBI]]}}</ref> and was raised in [[Kolkata]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Sawyer |first=Frances |date=2009-01-16 |title=Profile – A Split Existence |url=https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2009/01/16/profile-a-split-existence/ |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=Yale Daily News |language=en}}</ref> He did his B.A. in [[social work]] from [[Bombay University]] in 1994, during this time worked with [[Narmada Bachao Andolan]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-11-18 |title=Far Out Meets: Ashish Avikunthak on cinema from the margins |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/ashish-avikunthak-making-cinema-from-margins/ |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CinemaSpeak: Ashish Avikunthak on cinema as art |url=https://mediaindia.eu/tv-video/cinemaspeak-ashish-avikunthak-on-cinema-as-art/ |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=Media India Group |language=en}}</ref> He later studied [[archaeology]] in [[Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute|Deccan College, Pune]]. He did his PhD from [[Stanford University]] in [[cultural anthropology]]<ref name=":0" /> and then taught at [[Yale University|Yale]].<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Gupta |first=Gargi |date=2017-12-05 |title=I'm disillusioned with modernity, says filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak |url=https://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report-i-m-disillusioned-with-modernity-says-filmmaker-ashish-avikunthak-2090754 |website=DNAIndia}}</ref>

== Short films ==
Avikunthak began his filmmaking career with [[short film]]s made between 1995 and 2010. He created a body of work that explored ideas of ceremonial rituals, banality and the inter-relationships between selves and the concepts of 'community' and 'politicality' by challenging conventional forms of representations.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.debordements.fr/Ashish-Avikunthak-V-O/|title= Ashish Avikunthak: East By Northwest |date=31 March 2013|publisher= Débordements}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://thebigindianpicture.com/2013/06/their-experiments-with-truth//|title= Their experiments with truth |date=1 June 2013|publisher= The Big Indian Picture}}</ref> His first film ''Et Cetera'' was a [[tetralogy]] consisting of four [[One shot (film)|one-shot]] films made on [[16mm]], between 1995-97 - Renunciation, Soliloquy, Circumcision and, The Walk.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2015-04-16 |title=Outside the boundaries |url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/outside-the-boundaries/article7109597.ece |access-date=2024-06-28 |work=The Hindu |language=en-IN |issn=0971-751X}}</ref> Each of these films explores the dialectic between screen/film time and real time to examine actions as ritual. His next [[16mm]] film, ''Kalighat Fetish'' won the best documentary award at the [[Tampere Film Festival]] in 2001, which dealt with rituals of [[animal sacrifice]] and [[cross-dressing]] in the context of [[Kalighat Kali Temple]] in [[Kolkata]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=International Competition Winners |url=https://tamperefilmfestival.fi/en/about-us/archive/international-competition-awards/ |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=Tampere Film Festival |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2002, Avikunthak adapted [[Samuel Becket]]'s enigmatic dramaticule ''[[Come and Go]]'' into a [[16mm]] [[short film]] in [[Hindi]] called ''Antaral'' (End Note).<ref>{{Citation |last=Chakraborty |first=Thirthankar |title=Translating Silence: Ashish Avikunthak's Cinematographic Version of Come and Go |date=2021-07-27 |work=Beckett's Voices / Voicing Beckett |pages=221–234 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004468382/BP000020.xml |access-date=2024-06-28 |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/9789004468382_017 |isbn=978-90-04-46838-2|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Artdaily |title=Two Solo Exhibitions by Ashish Avikunthak and Sakti Burman |url=https://artdaily.cc/news/33330/Two-Solo-Exhibitions-by-Ashish-Avikunthak-and-Sakti-Burman |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=artdaily.cc |language=English}}</ref> In an analysis of the film in relationship to the play Arka Chattaopadhya writes: "Ashish Avikunthak's adaptation introduces a fascinating element of play into the Beckettian structure of this displacement and illumines significant nuances about its potential continuation…Avikunthak's deconstructive play unmakes Beckett's structure on the one hand, then on the other, the precision of the Beckettian structure responds to this element of play by implicating Avikunthak's structure in the braiding principle central to its own operation."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chattopadhyay |first=Arka |date=2017-02-23 |title=Exhausting the inexhaustible: reading the structure of Samuel Beckett's Come and Go through Ashish Avikunthak's Endnote |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0950236X.2016.1187667 |journal=Textual Practice |language=en |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=399–415 |doi=10.1080/0950236X.2016.1187667 |issn=0950-236X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

His 2010 film, ''Vakratunda Swaha'' premiered at the [[International Film Festival Rotterdam]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vakratunda Swaha |url=https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2011/films/vakratunda-swaha |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=IFFR EN |language=en-GB}}</ref> was featured at the Taipei Biennial 2012<ref>{{Cite web |title=Home |url=https://www.taipeibiennial.org/2023 |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=TFAM-2023TaipeiBiennial |language=en}}</ref> and was long listed for [[The Skoda Prize]] in 2011.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-09-22 |title=Skoda Prize 2011 announces Top Twenty |url=https://www.carwale.com/news/skoda-prize-2011-announces-top-twenty/ |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=CarWale |language=en}}</ref> Maurizio Calbi of [[University of Salerno]], Italy writing about Avikunthak's practice of this period notes that in his films, "(a) ritual quasi-mythical quality of everyday life emerge(s); of letting the 'ordinary' continually re-mark itself in its singularity as 'extra-ordinary.'"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Calbi |first=Maurizio |date=2011 |title=Postcolonial Entanglements: Performing Shakespeare and Kathakali in Ashish Avikunthak's Dancing Othello |journal=Anglistica |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=27–32}}</ref>

== Feature films ==
Avikunthak's first feature film ''Nirakar Chhaya'' (Shadows Formless) had its world premiere at the [[Locarno Film Festival]] in 2007.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.pardo.ch/filmdetails.do?oc=192224|title=NIRAKAR CHHAYA|website=archive.pardo.ch}}</ref> It is a [[Bengali language|Bengali]] language film that was adapted from [[Sethu (writer)|Sethumadhavan]]'s award winning [[Malayalam]] language novel ''Pandavapuram'', translocated to [[Kolkata]] from [[Kerala]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.newindianexpress.com/entertainment/2013/may/21/Charmed-by-transcendental-magic-479295.html|title= Charmed by transcendental magic |date=21 May 2013|publisher= [[The New Indian Express]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.newindianexpress.com/entertainment/2013/may/22/Reinventing-the-mythical-world-479580.html|title= Reinventing the mythical world|date=22 May 2013|publisher= [[The New Indian Express]]}}</ref> His 2010 [[Hindi]] language film, ''Katho Upanishad'' was an adaptation that transformed 6th century BCE [[Sanskrit]] language philosophical treatise [[Katha Upanishad]] into a [[triptych]] of three [[one shot (film)|one-shots]], with the longest being a 58-minute single-shot.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.mid-day.com/articles/the-secret-of--death/171664|title= The secret of death |date=9 July 2012|publisher= Mid Day, Mumbai}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.sunday-guardian.com/artbeat/should-high-art-evolve-with-the-times-to-stay-in-the-race|title= Should 'high art' evolve with the times to stay in the race? |date=12 July 2012|publisher= Sunday Guardian, Mumbai}}</ref>

In 2013, Avikunthak made India's first [[one shot (film)|one-shot]] feature film – ''Rati Chakravyuh.'' The entire film was made in a single-shot measuring 102 minutes.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.artslant.com/ind/articles/show/40024 |title=Circling Time |last=Sorabjee |first=Deepika |date=2014-07-06 |website=ArtSlant |publisher= |access-date=2015-10-07 |quote=}}</ref> Made in [[Kolkata]], it is a [[Bengali language|Bengali]] language film, in which six newlywed couples on their wedding night sit in a circle with a priestess in an ancient temple and have a protracted exchange before they commit [[mass suicide]].<ref>{{cite web|url= https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/temporal-universe/ |title= Temporal Universe |date=3 July 2014|publisher= Indian Express}}</ref> The film had its world premiere at the 2014 [[Shanghai Biennale]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://shanghaibiennale.org/en/artist/detail/54/11.html|title=Ashish Avikunthak |publisher= Shanghai Biennale|date=2014-12-12 |website= Shanghai Biennale 2014 |access-date=2019-08-20}}</ref>

In 2015, Avikunthak released ''Kalkimanthakatha'' that was shot on location in the [[Allahabad Kumbh Mela]] in 2013. In this feature film, [[Samuel Beckett]]'s celebrated play ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'' is transplanted from its European context to [[Bengali language|Bengali]] language and the [[Hindu]] pilgrimage site of the [[Kumbh Mela]].<ref>{{cite web|url= https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/eyes-wide-open-2/|title= Eyes Wide Open |date=29 July 2015|publisher= [[Indian Express]]}}</ref> This film was stopped from a private screening in a [[Kolkata]] art gallery by the [[Central Board of Film Certification]] in 2017.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/uncertified-film-screening-at-kolkata-gallery-miffs-cbfc/articleshow/57688357.cms/|title= Uncertified film screening at Kolkata gallery miffs CBFC |date=17 March 2017|publisher= [[Times of India]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.anandabazar.com/entertainment/censor-board-stops-screening-of-independent-film-kalkimanthakatha-directed-by-ashish-avikunthak-dgtl-1.581844|title= Censor board stops screening of independent film Kalkimanthakatha |date=18 March 2017|publisher= [[Anandabazar Patrika]]}}</ref> In a review published in [[Artforum]], art critic Murtaza Vali, writes that: "through this film, Avikunthak orchestrates a somewhat unexpected encounter between opposing perspectives or bodies of knowledge—sacred/secular, modernity/tradition, philosophy/politics—the friction between them forcing each to open up to the wisdom of the other. And by using an uncompromisingly difficult avant-garde form and structure to explore Hindu thought and ritual practice, the film troubles ongoing attempts by fundamentalists to assert definitive orthodox interpretations onto a religion defined by its rich multiplicities."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Vali |first=Murtaza |date=2015-11-01 |title=Ashish Avikunthak |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/ashish-avikunthak-214415/ |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2017, Avikunthak's film ''Kali of Emergency'' which he made a year before had its world première in Forum Expanded in [[Berlin International Film Festival]].<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/NitmPqXhStfdcLqZQ3Ol8I/Goddess-in-the-details-Aapothkalin-Trikalika.htm|title= Goddess in the details: 'Aapothkalin Trikalika'|date=24 June 2017|publisher= [[Mint (newspaper)|Mint]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Aapothkalin Trikalika {{!}} The Kali of Emergency |url=https://www.berlinale.de/en/2017/programme/201712410.html |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=www.berlinale.de |language=en}}</ref> In the screening of this film at [[International Film Festival Rotterdam]] in 2023, it noted that: "Kali of Emergency juxtaposes two kinds of [[Hindu iconography]], mingling the elaborately costumed, stylised gods of popular representations with the austere forms found in pre-modern paintings and temple sculptures...Filled with incandescent images, Kali of Emergency is of a piece with Avikunthak's singular, personal body of work."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kali of Emergency |url=https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2023/films/kali-of-emergency |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=IFFR EN |language=en-GB}}</ref>
''Glossary of Non-Human Love'' was shown at [[International Film Festival Rotterdam]] in 2021.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-06-23 |title=India at IFFR 2021: 'Glossary of Non-human Love' and 'Everything is Cinema' |url=https://lifestyle.livemint.com//how-to-lounge/movies-tv/india-at-iffr-2021-glossary-of-non-human-love-and-everything-is-cinema-111624378650892.html |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=Mintlounge |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Glossary of Non-Human Love |url=https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2021/films/glossary-of-non-human-love |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=IFFR EN |language=en-GB}}</ref> It is a film that "is set in a [[Parallel universes in fiction|parallel universe]] where [[artificial intelligence]] has usurped humanity's reign over the planet…Glossary of Non-Human Love can also be viewed as an ecocritical commentary on technological evolution. Due to the fragmented [[glossary]] structure and its exploration of AI, it almost feels like code is being parsed while the film itself becomes a dynamic entity."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-12-08 |title='Glossary of Non-Human Love': Ashish Avikunthak and sci-fi |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/glossary-of-non-human-love-ashish-avikunthak-sci-fi/ |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2024, ''Vidvastha'' (Devastated) had its world premiere at the [[International Film Festival Rotterdam]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Devastated |url=https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2024/films/devastated |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=IFFR EN |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-12-22 |title='Devastated' world premiere at Rotterdam film festival |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/devastated-world-premiere-at-rotterdam-film-festival-kolkata-ashish-avikunthaks-political-film-vidhvastha-devastated/articleshow/106196514.cms |access-date=2024-06-28 |work=The Times of India |issn=0971-8257}}</ref> which is a film "that is not afraid to directly confront the increasingly authoritarian national trajectory while also paving the way for future generations of Indian filmmakers to think in terms of cinematic linguistics that do not conform to the derivative form that plagues contemporary Indian movies."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-04-03 |title='Devastated': Ashish Avikunthak and Indian political cinema |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/devastated-ashish-avikunthak-indian-political-cinema/ |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}</ref> In a review of the film in [[ArtReview]] ''Devastated'' is described as a: "commentarial film that examines the double life of a middle-aged Hindu policeman… through its complex and probing discourses, grittily examines the nature of violence in its diverse forms."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vidvastha (Devastated) Review: The Bizarre and the Bhagavad Gita |url=https://artreview.com/vidvastha-devastated-ashish-avikunthak-review/ |access-date=2024-06-28 |website=artreview.com |language=en}}</ref>

== Filmography ==
{| class="wikitable"
|+<ref name=":0" />
!Year
!Original title
!International title
!Language(s)
!Notes
|-
|1997
|Et cetera
|Et cetera
|English
|
|-
|1999
|Kalighaat Fetish
|Kalighaat Fetish
|Hindi
|
|-
|2000
|Performing Death
|Performing Death
|No spoken language
|
|-
|2001
|Rummaging for Pasts
|Rummaging for Pasts: Excavating Sicily, Digging Bombay
|English
|film essay; partly based on [[Monte Polizzo]] excavations in Sicily<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bose |first=Swapnil Dhruv |date=2023-10-17 |title='Rummaging for Pasts': an Ashish Avikunthak exhibition at Chatterjee and Lal |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/rummaging-for-pasts-ashish-avikunthak-exhibition/ |website=Far Out Magazine}}</ref>
|-
|2002
|Brihannala ki Khelkali
|Dancing Othello
|English
|
|-
|2005
|Antaral
|End Note
|Bengali
|
|-
|2007
|Nirakar Chhaya
|Shadows Formless
|English
|debut feature; based on Malayalam novella ''[[Sethu (writer)|Pandavapuram]]'' by [[Sethu (writer)|Sethu]]<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=A.K. |first=Arun |date=2021 |title=An Idiom Unto Itself: An Ashish Avikunthak Retrospective |url=https://www.screenslate.com/articles/idiom-unto-itself-ashish-avikunthak-retrospective |website=[[Screen Slate]]}}</ref>
|-
|2010
|Vakratunda Swaha
|Vakratunda Swaha
|Hindi
|
|-
|2011
|Katho Upanishad
|Katho Upanishad
|Hindi
|based on the dialogue between [[Yama]] and [[Nachiketa]], from the [[Katha Upanishad]]<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2018 |title=Treasures of the Yale Film Archive: Katho Upanishad |url=https://web.library.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Katho%20Upanishad%20Notes.pdf |website=[[Yale Film Archive]]}}</ref>
|-
|2014
|Rati Chakravyuh
|Rati Chakravyuh
|Bengali
|
|-
|2015
|Kalkimanthankatha
|The Churning of Kali
|Bengali
|inspired by [[Waiting for Godot]] by [[Samuel Beckett]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-05-04 |title=Kalkimanthankatha |url=https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/beckettworldlit/kalkimanthankatha/ |website=[[University of Kent]]}}</ref>
|-
|2017
|Aapothkalin Trikalika
|The Kali of Emergency
|Bengali
|
|-
|2018
|Vrindavani Vairagya
|Dispassionate Love
|Bengali
|
|-
|2021
|Na Manush Premer Kothamala
|Glossary of Non-Human Love
|Bengali
|
|-
|2024
|Vidhvastha
|Devastated
|Bengali
|
|}

== Academic career ==
In 2021, he wrote a book, ''Bureaucratic Archaeology: State, Science and Past in Postcolonial India,'' published by [[Cambridge University Press]], dealing with the intersection of politics and archaeology in India.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Avikunthak |first=Ashish |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781009067119/type/book |title=Bureaucratic Archaeology: State, Science, and Past in Postcolonial India |date=2021-09-30 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-009-06711-9 |edition=1 |doi=10.1017/9781009067119|s2cid=243742619 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ray |first=Rajat |date=2022-11-19 |title=Bureaucratic Archaeology is a scholarly investigation of the history and hierarchical structure of the ASI |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/books-and-literature/bureaucratic-archaeology-scholarly-investigation-of-history-hierarchical-structure-8275688/ |website=[[Indian Express]]}}</ref> [[Uzma Z. Rizvi]] in the review of this book in [[Antiquity (journal)|Antiquity]] writes: "Avikunthak successfully argues that [[Archaeological Survey of India|Archaeological Survey of India's]] bureaucracy, and the religious politics that inform the structures of those offices, run so deep in archaeological practice in India that it cannot but impact the very nature of the archaeological evidence that it produces and presents as scientific fact."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rizvi |first=Uzma Z. |date=2022-10-06 |title=Archaeology, ethnography and epistemic critiques of the nation |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/archaeology-ethnography-and-epistemic-critiques-of-the-nation/73FFED2CDABBA3B2190E271C954535E9 |journal=Antiquity |language=en |volume=96 |issue=390 |pages=1634–1637 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2022.131 |issn=0003-598X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Controversy==
In July 2017, a social-media outrage erupted when Avikunthak was debarred from entering the upmarket [[Quest Mall]] in [[Kolkata]] because he was wearing a [[dhoti]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/india/denied-entry-to-kolkata-quest-mall-in-dhoti-filmmaker-ashish-avikunthak-4752618/lite/|title=Denied entry to Kolkata mall in dhoti: Filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak - India News, The Indian Express|website=indianexpress.com|date=16 July 2017 }}</ref> He was eventually allowed after he spoke in English.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://scroll.in/article/844091/social-apartheid-i-was-barred-from-entering-a-kolkata-mall-because-i-was-wearing-a-dhoti|title=Social apartheid: I was barred from entering a Kolkata mall because I was wearing a dhoti|date=17 July 2017|publisher=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dailyo.in/voices/kolkata-quest-mall-denies-entry-dhoti-filmmaker-public-spaces-racial-profiling/story/1/18776.html|title=Denied entry to Kolkata mall in dhoti: Filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak on 'public space'|date=4 August 2017|publisher=}}</ref> In a Facebook post that went viral he wrote: "This is unambiguously a new low for this city. Private clubs have always created hierarchies and distinctions because of clothing. Now public spaces are also threatened and a culture of segregation based on class is being practiced unhindered. I write this with a sense of deep disgust."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ndtv.com/kolkata-news/denied-entry-for-wearing-dhoti-claims-filmmaker-kolkata-mall-counters-charge-1725237|title=Was Denied Entry Into Kolkata Mall For Wearing Dhoti, Alleges Filmmaker|date=16 July 2017|publisher=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/all-doors-should-open-for-those-in-traditional-indian-wear-delhi-restaurateurs/story-43RVXPsXF4Wo8koy1usK9N.html|title=All doors should open for those in traditional Indian wear|work=Hindustan Times |date=24 July 2017|publisher=}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
He married twice; his second marriage is to Debleena Sen Chadha, an actress in Bengali-language films. He has a daughter.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Saini |first=Bhavya |date=2022-03-02 |title=I Fell In Love With Ashish Despite The 17-Year Age Gap, Says Debleena Sen Chadha |url=https://www.shethepeople.tv/personal-stories/i-fell-in-love-with-ashish-despite-the-17-year-age-gap-says-debleena-sen-chadha/ |website=[[SheThePeople]]}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Amrit Gangar]]
* [[Amit Dutta]]
* [[Film and Television Institute of India]]
* [[Mubi (streaming service)|MUBI]]

== References ==

{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{IMDb name|3820149}}
* [https://mubi.com/en/cast/ashish-avikunthak MUBI page]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Avikunthak, Ashish}}
[[Category:1972 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian anthropologists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian screenwriters]]
[[Category:Hindi-language film directors]]
[[Category:Bengali film directors]]
[[Category:Indian male screenwriters]]

Ashish Avikunthak - Revision history

ErwinGholson17 at 19:15, 30 October 2025