Dr. Shabana Parvez, MD, FACEP, US Bureau Chief of The Desi Buzz and founder of ArlingtonIntegrative.com, sat down for an exclusive and insightful conversation with with the internationally acclaimed artist, graphic novelist, and film producer Debasmita Dasgupta, an award-winning creative force and arts-for-change advocate, Dasgupta has cultivated a remarkable 17-year career. Her work, published by giants like Penguin Random House and HarperCollins, and her role as keynote creator at the Singapore Writers Festival, underscores her impact in literature. As a media communications specialist with experience across Asia and Europe, she naturally co-founded FilmsPositive, channeling her dual passions for cinema and social advocacy into production.
Her filmography is equally impressive, encompassing three international features, award-winning short films, and documentaries for global agencies like the United Nations. Her debut feature as writer and producer, “Before Life After Death,” premiered at the Singapore International Film Festival and is now streaming on Netflix across the Asia-Pacific. As a Produire au sud Fellow of the Festival des 3 Continents, she continues to develop compelling stories, with forthcoming features “Bayaar / Dust and the Wind” and “The Ghost and The Gun.”
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Background & Roots
Dr Shabana Parvez: You were born in Calcutta and are now based in the UK. How have these two cities shaped your worldview and creative voice?
Debasmita Dasgupta: Growing up in Calcutta in the 90s and now living in the UK, I often catch myself noticing how similar the two places feel, despite their obvious differences. Neither is picture-perfect, both are filled with contradictions, particularly ancient vs modernity. But most importantly, both have taught me that understanding a place comes from actively engaging with it. By connecting and contributing. And for me, that engagement has always been tied to the constant conversation with art and cultural diversity that both places offer.
I went to a school in Calcutta that was deeply influenced by Satyajit Ray, and at home, cinema and theatre were part of everyday life. My father is a theatre actor and director, and I grew up watching both local and global cinema. Films by Mrinal Sen, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Shyam Benegal, and Girish Kasaravalli, alongside Kurosawa, De Sica, and Truffaut. I spent hours watching group theatre rehearsals and performances, reading “An Actor Prepares” by Stanislavsky that my father always kept on the front shelf at a very tender age, and I enjoyed stories from Tagore, Gorky, to Tintin.
Living in the UK has allowed me to continue that journey. Again from Shakespeare to Zadie Smith, or from “Downton Abbey” to films by Mike Leigh — art is omnipresent. And I think the best part of such places filled with art and diversity, gives you a broader vision, makes you a better observer, a better listener. And that’s where YOU start creating, whether you are writing, illustrating, or producing cinema.
Dr Shabana Parvez: Before becoming an award-winning artist and filmmaker, what early experiences or influences pushed you toward visual storytelling?
Debasmita Dasgupta: I have shared this partly in the first answer but one thing that I would like to mention is that my parents never gave me a set script to follow. That really helped. Early on, I was quite certain that I wanted to get into the creative world. That’s my passion and I wanted to make it my profession but I wasn’t sure how to make it happen. I needed time to gather real life experiences that created the core of my stories, as well as I needed time to hone the craft of visual storytelling. So I learnt and I am still learning.
Dr Shabana Parvez: Your career spans publishing, cinema, and social advocacy. Was this a planned path or an organic evolution?
Debasmita Dasgupta: I actually don’t see them as separate entities. I am a visual storyteller and my visual stories are my way to communicate with this world. They carry my life experiences, my identity, my values, and my politics.
Dr Shabana Parvez: You’ve worked across Asia, Europe, and beyond. How do you stay culturally authentic while telling globally resonant stories?
Debasmita Dasgupta: Knowing my roots and Respecting others — Staying connected to where I come from gives my work authenticity, while approaching other cultures with openness and respect allows the stories to resonate across borders.
Creative Journey & Storytelling
Dr Shabana Parvez: You work at the intersection of art, cinema, and cultural storytelling. How do you decide which medium best serves a particular story?
Debasmita Dasgupta: Cultural storytelling is embedded in both my art and my cinema. But the decision on whether it’s a graphic novel or a film is very clear. Reason being, my graphic novels are created from a very personal space, whereas a film is an outcome of a collective idea. I can create a graphic novel, from idea to publishing, all by myself, sitting in my studio for months. On the contrary, to make a film, I need a large team. The stories of the film often come to me from someone else, and even if I think of the story first, I need a team of screenwriters to write that story.
Dr Shabana Parvez: As both an illustrator and a film producer, how does your visual sensibility influence your approach to narrative structure?
Debasmita Dasgupta: I am a visual thinker so whether it’s an illustrated story on paper or a film on screen, I can effortlessly visualise the flow, the pattern, and the pacing of the visual narrative. That helps me relate to the material in its entirety. I can literally see where the story is slowing down, rushing forward, repeating itself, going nowhere, or abruptly ending its narrative arc. To give you a practical example, when I make a graphic novel, I always create the full story first in thumbnail format (draw panels with stick figures) and create a mini booklet. That miniature form of the future book helps me structure, re-structure, edit, re-edit, and further polish the story. In films, this exercise is slightly different though since the visual storyboarding is done by the creative team. However, as a producer, I visualise the stages of the production from ‘development to distribution’. I have a dedicated sketchbook / notebook for every project where I draw the strategy maps, sketch the possibilities, often use colourful markers and post-its to see it all before my eyes.
Dr Shabana Parvez: Many of your stories deal with identity, resilience, and social realities. What themes do you find yourself repeatedly returning to—and why?
Debasmita Dasgupta: I often find myself returning to themes of identity, resilience, and social realities because they’re deeply tied to how I experience the world around me. Having lived across cultures, I’m constantly aware of how identity is layered, fluid, and shaped by context. That complexity naturally finds its way into my stories. Resilience interests me because it exists in quiet, everyday ways. Not just in moments of triumph, but in how I see humans adapt, endure, and keep going despite uncertainty. And social realities shape my politics and my values. They allow me to question, to discover conflict. And you know, conflict is where a good story begins.
However, one theme that’s recurring in all my stories is the idea of happiness. To me, “happiness is a habit”, my mother always says that. The characters in my stories may deal with complex themes of loss, death, misogyny, climate crisis, and more — but amidst all adversities, they find little nuggets of happiness that keep them going.
Dr Shabana Parvez: How do you emotionally prepare yourself before starting a project that deals with sensitive or complex human experiences?
Debasmita Dasgupta: Before starting a project that deals with sensitive or complex human experiences, I try to slow myself first. I do my research. I listen. I observe. I begin a conversation with the material and let it slowly build a narrative. It takes time. Quality work always does. However, once the process finds a rhythm then it takes shape quite fast.
Publishing & Graphic Novels
Dr Shabana Parvez: Your graphic novels have been published by Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Scholastic, Oxford University Press, and others. What does global readership mean to you as a creator?
Global readership reminds me that stories are not possessions, but travelers. And as a creator, it’s a thrill and a responsibility to send them out into the world, hoping they carry something true, strange, and human wherever they land.
Dr Shabana Parvez: Terminal 3, set in Kashmir, required deep sensitivity. What was the most challenging aspect of bringing that story to life?
Debasmita Dasgupta: The greatest challenge was to tell a story set against the backdrop of conflict without being trapped in the familiar, worn-out narratives of Kashmir. In my imagination, Khwab and Noor were young girls brimming with dreams, desires, and mischief. Yes, they come from Kashmir, but in their hearts and struggles, they are indistinguishable from any teenager I’ve known. They carry secrets, fall in love, nurture ambitions, quarrel with those they hold dear. They build, they bend, they endure, and in doing so, they insist on their own humanity beyond the stereotypical headlines. So instead of shades of grey, my visuals dominated shades of carmine and magenta.
Dr Shabana Parvez: You’ve created books for children, middle-grade readers, and adults. How does your storytelling approach change with age groups?
Debasmita Dasgupta: In-depth research and close observation of human behavior are essential. The more you pay attention to how people think, act, and interact, the richer and more believable your characters and stories become. Language also plays a crucial role—where your story is set, and how your characters speak, directly shapes the narrative. From a publishing perspective, the form and length of a story also matter: a children’s picture book has different requirements than a children’s graphic novel, which differs from a middle-grade novel or an adult narrative.
Dr Shabana Parvez: With Faiza is a Fighter releasing soon (just released in 2025), what conversations do you hope the book sparks among young readers?
Debasmita Dasgupta: “Faiza is a Fighter” just became The Beat Best Kids Comics of 2025 and that’s such an amazing recognition. Many readers, across borders, have been posting about the story and sometimes sharing direct feedback with me. It’s so heartening! The main idea of this story is captured in the form of a short poem in the story that Faiza and her Baba recite together. I am sharing that here with all your readers:
“Who are you?
I am a Fighter.
What will never go away?
My fighting spirit.
If you fail?
I will try.
If you fall?
I will rise.
When in doubt?
I will close my eyes.
And say out loud?
Fight, Faiza, Fight!”
Cinema & FilmsPositive
Dr Shabana Parvez: You co-founded FilmsPositive to produce cross-cultural cinema. What gaps in mainstream filmmaking were you hoping to address?
Debasmita Dasgupta: As the world becomes more connected and people more mobile, cultural identities are increasingly layered and complex. I am a South-Asian, who has spent a decade in SE Asia, and now lives in the UK for the past five years. You cannot put me inside one “identity bucket”. And interestingly, I am not an exception in today’s world. So for me, this is the new narrative: honest, nuanced, and reflective of the way many people in present times live and experience the world. These stories deserve to be told, the way they are. They challenge dominant, singular narratives and reflect the new realities of our time. FilmsPositive is making an effort to do so.
The second focus of FilmsPositive is to empower independent voices, particularly voices that connect South-Asian and SE Asian cinema with the world. Too often, because of the dominant studio culture, these stories remain unseen or underrepresented, and the filmmakers behind them face structural barriers. Our goal is to create a space where such voices can be heard, nurtured, and shared, producing cinema that is authentic, inclusive, and cross-cultural.
Dr Shabana Parvez: Before Life After Death reached global audiences through Netflix. How did it feel to see such a personal project find international viewers?
Debasmita Dasgupta: Sometimes it feels surreal!
But I really like this line from the movie “The Founder”, it says: “I was an overnight success alright, but 30 years is a long, long night.” From a personal expression to the international stage of Netflix, didn’t happen overnight. There were years of hard work behind that success. And I appreciate that destination as much as I appreciate the process.
Dr Shabana Parvez: Bayaar / Dust and the Wind and The Ghost and The Gun explore very different worlds. How do you choose the stories you want to champion as a producer?
Debasmita Dasgupta: Thanks for asking this question! It’s such an important one.
As a producer, I need to understand the value of a creative expression as well as the economics involved in its realisation. It’s not easy. Most of the time, it’s a gut feeling. Difficult to unpack the formula. You just know it. Of course, you have to feel the connection (in my case it’s cross-cultural stories, personal stories) but you see, the business of cinema is not pure math. I feel too much calculation can create ‘content’ but not ‘cinema’. Cinema is more raw, like life.
Also, my choice also depends on the humans who make that film with me. The writer, the director, the DoP, and other producers. When you have chosen a film, it’s going to stay with you forever. And so does the core team. It’s like a life-long relationship and you don’t want to end up with the wrong party.
Dr Shabana Parvez: Your upcoming WWII film is set in British Malaya. Why is it important to revisit overlooked histories through cinema?
Debasmita Dasgupta: Cinema has the ability to bring history back into collective memory, especially stories that have been overlooked or simplified over time. Revisiting these histories matters because they help us understand how the present has been shaped. Whose voices were amplified, and whose were left out. When we return to these moments with care and empathy, we create space for more honest and inclusive narratives. Setting the film in British Malaya during World War II allowed us to explore a chapter of history that is rarely seen on screen, particularly from the SE Asian perspective.
Art for Change & Mentorship‘
Dr Shabana Parvez: You actively mentor emerging artists and work with global non-profits. What role do you believe artists play in shaping social consciousness today?
Debasmita Dasgupta: In a world increasingly shaped by algorithms and unconscious bias, I believe artists can create spaces for free thinking and imagination. They don’t have to provide answers but they can help you see things differently and evoke questions in your mind. Change is a gradual process. Art is a medium for that, and artists can only enable it. Sometimes what you create may not create an immediate impact, but when a collective approach is taken over a number of years, you see change happening. It may not happen in your lifetime, but it will happen one day. Art gives you that hope.
Mentoring emerging artists and working with global non-profits is my way of keeping that hope alive as well as taking it one step further. It is about nurturing voices that might otherwise go unheard. So I create impact stories, visual stories about changemakers, and I teach emerging and aspiring artists across the globe by sharing all my knowledge and experience with them. None of my workshops and courses are pre-recorded. I teach through live sessions, directly interacting with every participant in my class. They learn from me and I learn from them.
Dr Shabana Parvez: From climate change to gender justice, your work often carries a purpose. Can art truly drive social change, or does it primarily spark conversation?
Debasmita Dasgupta: I have answered this above
Fun & Personal
Dr Shabana Parvez: If you weren’t an artist or filmmaker, what alternate career do you think you would have pursued?
Debasmita Dasgupta: I really like music. I am not a trained singer (I only learnt singing in school) but I sing (mostly) Bengali songs that I write and compose. So who knows, I may have given it a shot 🙂 especially since there are so few female music composers and lyricists in the world.
Dr Shabana Parvez: Which of your characters—across books or films—do you relate to the most, and why?
Debasmita Dasgupta: That’s the toughest question 🙂 I think there is always a part of me in every story that I produce. But if I really have to choose, then I relate most to Khwab Nazir of “Terminal 3” and Faiza (in “Faiza is a Fighter”). They both refuse to give up, and they fight back!
Dr Shabana Parvez: What’s one creative habit or ritual you can’t work without?
Debasmita Dasgupta: I am a visual thinker. I see images before words.
Dr Shabana Parvez: Graphic novel or film—which medium feels more like “home” to you on tough creative days?
Debasmita Dasgupta: Both are home but Graphic Novel is my bedroom and Film is my living room. In films, I manage the business of filmmaking. While in graphic novels, I am completely dwelling in a creative space. Interestingly, I enjoy both ends of the spectrum, the chaos and calm 🙂
Dr Shabana Parvez: What’s the most unexpected place or moment where you’ve found inspiration for a story?
Debasmita Dasgupta: It’s funny because creative ideas can come anywhere, any time. I really enjoy cleaning my own house. I have this book about Japanese monks who say cleaning your house is like cleaning your soul. So I feel super relaxed when I am dusting or scrubbing, and often while I am doing that my mind creates wonders. It has happened more than once so I love it 🙂
Dr Shabana Parvez: What message would you like to give to aspiring youngsters and women ?
Debasmita Dasgupta: “Don’t let external challenges defeat your inner peace.”
