Sophiyaa Nayar
"A nationally rising director"
Windy City Times
"Superbly directed...I was knocked out, frankly"
Chicago Tribune
"A dynamic display of artistic excellence"
Rescripted
About
Sophiyaa Nayar is an award-winning Indian writer-director whose work explores power, transformation, moral ambiguity, and the systems that shape identity.
An Ang Lee Scholar currently pursuing her MFA at NYU Tisch Graduate Film, Sophiyaa began her career directing theatre and developing new work with institutions including Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and The Shed.
Her latest short film, KHEL, won NYU's Black Family Prize, while her previous short, CHHAYA, screened in competition at multiple Oscar-qualifying festivals. She is a recipient of the 2026 NYWIFT Scholarship Award and 3 Arts Make a Wave Grantee.
Sophiyaa is currently developing two feature films: an anarchic dark comedy and a female-led crime thriller-- alongside a dark comedy television series.
She is represented by Elinor Burns and Nina Amini at Casarotto Ramsay & Associates.
Selected Work
Khel (8min, Hindi)
An innocent game of hide-and-seek between three siblings spirals into a dangerous struggle for dominance, in an abandoned factory in India.
[In Post-Production]
Rumi (6min, hindi)
A 13 year old girl goes to painful lengths to be taken seriously by her mother, sacrificing her innocence in the process.
[In Post-Production]
Chhaya (8min, english)
Somewhere between fantasy and paranoia, an absurd doctor’s appointment cracks open, unraveling the psyche of a survivor grappling with sexual assault.