Leslee Udwin

Early life

She was born in Savyon, Israel, to a Jewish family.

Career

Udwin started her career as an actor and initially acted in plays at the Royal Court, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, playing roles like Lady Macbeth, Masha in Chekhov's Three Sisters, Lulu, Nora in A Doll's House, etc. In 1986 she set a legal precedent in the High Court of England against a criminal landlord Nicholas van Hoogstraten who harassed her and her fellow tenants in their rent act protected apartment block in West London. SHe then turned her real life battle against Hoogstraten and its victorious outcome into a drama documentary for the BBC Sitting Targets. She started her production company, Assassin Films, in 1992. Her well-known productions include the films East is East (1999), Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution (2007), and West is West (2010), and the documentary India's Daughter (2015). Leslee is no stranger to successful campaigning films. “Who Bombed Birmingham?” (starring John Hurt) for HBO and Granada TV, directly led to the release of the ‘Birmingham Six’ after 17 years of wrongful imprisonment. Her feature film "East is East" (35 prestigious awards worldwide, including British Oscar for Best Film) did much to promote tolerance and the celebration of diversity as between the Asian and British communities and has become a classic film taught in schools across Europe. Her documentary "India's Daughter", has been critically acclaimed around the globe, won 32 awards (including the Peabody Award and the Amnesty International Media Award for Best Documentary 2016) and sparked a global movement to end violence against women and girls.

The searing insights yielded by the 2½ journey making “India’s Daughter”, led Leslee to found UK-and-US-based Not for Profit global education initiative “Think Equal”, of which she is the CEO. Leslee was voted by the NY Times the No 2 Most Impactful Woman of 2015 (second to Hillary Clinton), and has been awarded the prestigious Swedish Anna Lindh Human Rights Prize (previously won by Madeleine Albright). She has also been named Safe’s Global Hero of 2015, and Global Thinker by Foreign Policy.

Personal life

She lives in London, UK.

Controversies

The film was banned by the Indian government who were alerted to its 'undesirable nature' by a number of Indian feminists including Indira Jaisingh, Urvashi Bhutalia, Vrinder Grover, Kavita Krishnan, Dr Devki Jain. The BJP government accused Udwin of a" conspiracy to shame India" and wish to "decimate its tourist industry". Udwin listed statistics at the end of the documentary to draw attention to the fact that violence against women and girls is a global pandemic to which no country is immune. She has said she believes the reason for the ban is "India's current obsession with nationalism and image which makes it reluctant to look in the mirror".