The Visionaries Behind Revolution's Wife
REVOLUTION'S WIFE was built by a small team across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Fresno, Mumbai and Pune, with deep roots in the history it tells. Here's who made it.
Writer, Director, Producer
Reenita Malhotra Hora
DIRECTOR'S BIO
Reenita Malhotra Hora is an Indian-born filmmaker, award-winning novelist, and screenwriter who reimagines the South Asian experience through bold genre storytelling, spanning political thrillers, comedy, fantasy, and adventure. She believes South Asian characters deserve to be the heroes of every kind of story, not just stories about being South Asian, leading with suspense and humor rather than exposition so audiences experience culture through character first.
A former journalist at Bloomberg and Radio Television Hong Kong, with bylines in The New York Times and CNN, Reenita brings an investigative eye to her work, which has been recognized by the Sundance Institute Development Slate, the Writers Lab, Cinestory, Stowe Story Labs, and the Santa Barbara International Screenplay Awards for her screenwriting, and the Chanticleer International Book Awards, the Eric Hoffer Book Awards, and the IndieReader Discovery Awards for her novels. REVOLUTION'S WIFE, inspired by one of the first Indian women in America during the 1917 Hindu-German Conspiracy Trial, marks her directorial debut.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
History remembers the men who lead revolutions. It rarely remembers the women who survive them.
When I first discovered Padmavati Chandra, I was struck by what history didn't record. Here was one of the first Indian women in America, swept into one of the largest espionage investigations on American soil during World War I, and yet her story survived only in fragments, usually as a footnote to the men around her. That absence became the beginning of REVOLUTION'S WIFE.
I wanted to build a political thriller rather than a traditional historical drama. The material was already there: coded messages, surveillance, money that kept disappearing, loyalties that shifted depending on who was in the room. Telling it through Padma's eyes means the audience shares her uncertainty, forced to keep asking who can be trusted and how easily an ordinary life becomes collateral damage when history is written by those in power.
As an Indian-born filmmaker, I've always believed South Asian stories deserve the same cinematic ambition as any great thriller, comedy, or adventure, rather than being boxed into a single lens of identity or trauma.
At its heart, this is a story about a woman discovering her own agency inside a world built to keep her in the background. Padma begins as someone defined by her husband and his cause. She ends as someone who decides what she believes, what she will sacrifice, and who she chooses to become.
My hope is that audiences leave gripped first, and only realize afterward they've discovered a remarkable chapter of American and Indian history that almost no one knows. That they start wondering how many extraordinary people remain hidden between the lines of the stories we think we already know. History is never just about the names that fill the textbooks. Sometimes the most compelling stories belong to the people standing just outside the frame.
Writer, Producer
Candace Egan
Candace Egan is a professor of Film and Media Arts at Fresno State, a documentary and narrative filmmaker, and a screenwriter focused on female-forward stories. Her career began in journalism when she became the first female news videographer at KMPH TV. Later, she moved into educational media at California State University, Fresno, then into teaching.
She’s had a long career as a non-fiction visual storyteller, exploring stories about a breadth of people, such as the first Hmong women to go to college; the poetry performances of a U.S. Poet Laureate; wrote, produced and directed the historic photography documentary SIERRA ODYSSEY and, since 2019 is the director of four documentaries produced or in production for the Portuguese Oral History Project.
Tapping into her own adventurous life, Candace is inspired to write stories with women protagonists who transform into brave, adventurous versions of themselves. Her scripts have received numerous accolades, including a Stowe Story Labs Fellowship, a Second-round placement at the Austin Screenwriters Conference and a semifinal placement in the Page International Screenwriting Awards.
She co-wrote and co-produced, with Reenita Malhotra Hora, the short film REVOLUTION’S WIFE.
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Anup Kulkarni
Anup Kulkarni is an award-winning Hollywood Cinematographer and VFX Supervisor who has brought stories to life on films like Life of Pi, Thor: The Dark World, Percy Jackson, and R.I.P.D. Along the way, he has earned seven Best Cinematography awards and screened his films at SXSW, Cannes, The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Pan African Film Festival, DANCES WITH FILMS, ETC. He has been honored to serve as a jury member at respected film festivals across the United States.
His work has taken him across the world, collaborating on projects in nine languages and spanning everything from feature films and television to documentaries, music videos, and commercials. Always curious and forward-thinking, Anup is also exploring new frontiers in VR cinematography, recently creating 180° immersive experiences for the Apple Vision Pro.
When not on set, he shares his knowledge as a visiting lecturer & cinematography coach at various film schools & organizations teaching color theory and the art of VFX color grading to the next generation of filmmakers. With a background that blends cinematography, photography, and visual effects, Anup brings cultural sensitivity, technical mastery, and a love for storytelling to every project he takes on.
COMPOSER
Ashutosh Sohoni
Ashutosh Sohoni is a composer for Films, TV Commercials & other Visual Media. He is a recipient of PMA Mark Awards 2022 & 2023, Los Angeles. Currently based in Mumbai, he graduated from UCLA-Ext in Film Scoring studies with distinction. He has worked with the likes of Howard Shore, Lorne Balfe and Dominik Scherrer. In his stay in Los Angeles, Sohoni interned for the X-Men, Captain America, Kong: Skull Island composer Henry Jackman. He is also a sample library maker having worked for award winning company OutPut along with Native Instrument's initiative sounds.com
Academy award winning composer AR Rahman's KM Music Conservatory in Chennai turned out to be a great platform where Ashutosh underwent training in Western Classical Piano. He collaborated with various artists in Chennai to whom he gives credit to develop an ability to absorb South Indian form of music.
Editor
Ruchir Kulkarni
Ruchir Kulkarni is an Indian filmmaker based in Los Angeles whose work spans writing, directing, editing, and producing narrative and documentary films. Before pursuing filmmaking professionally, Ruchir trained as an engineer, an experience that shaped his analytical approach to visual storytelling and narrative structure.
Ruchir has directed & produced several short films and collaborated on independent narrative and documentary projects that explored themes of social justice, gender dynamics, and grassroots movements. These experiences helped shape his creative sensibility and strengthened his interest in telling stories that reflect personal vulnerability alongside broader social realities.
His recent short film Changing Room, an intimate coming-of-age story about body image and self-esteem, premiered in Los Angeles at Dances With Films at the TCL Chinese Theatre and later screened at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival and the International South Asian Film Festival Canada. The film was also selected as a finalist at the Oscar-Qualifying Bengaluru International Short Film Festival and screened as a finalist at Cine Gear Expo 2026 at the Steven Spielberg Theatre on the Universal Studios lot.
Ruchir was also selected as one of the “75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow” by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, at the International Film Festival of India, a national initiative recognising promising emerging filmmakers across the country.
Sound Designer
Yash Lonkar
Yash Lonkar is a sound designer, re-recording mixer, and location sound recordist based in Pune, India, and the founder of YaLo Studios.
With over eight years of experience, he has crafted immersive soundscapes for feature films, web series, documentaries, and commercials. Guided by the belief that sound is as vital to storytelling as the image itself, he is passionate about creating authentic, emotionally resonant sonic experiences that bring every story to life.
TRAILER EDITOR
Tangier Clarke
Tangier is an award-winning motion picture editor, post-production supervisor, and teacher. He earned his BA from U.C. Berkeley and MFA from Loyola Marymount University. His body of work includes feature films, episodic narratives, documentary, industrial, promotional, trailers and teasers, and lifestyle content. His twenty four years of experience spans content for broadcast platforms such as NBC and Showtime, independent companies like motion graphics firm Montgomery & Co. Creative, Ignatian Spirituality-based Loyola Productions, and streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Black&SexyTV, Red Table Talk, and KIN. He also brings experience as a videographer, technical director for live events, web developer, and IT administrator.
Since 2020, Tangier has been building a Media Production Pathway for Da Vinci Communications High School, in El Segundo, Ca. Tangier is a husband, father of two, LA native, and has a love for computer and video technologies.
PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Ashley Hand
Ashley Hand is a multidisciplinary creative working across film, commercial, and branded content, with experience in production design, set decoration, props, wardrobe, and on-camera performance. Her art department work spans narrative projects including short films, pilots, and feature film, as well as commercial and branded work for clients including Burt’s Bees, Amazon, O’Reilly Auto Parts, and the City of Ontario.
With a lifelong background in performance and a love for visual storytelling, Ashley has worked on both sides of the camera, bringing an eye for character, detail, and atmosphere to the worlds she helps create. Her work has taken her across multiple areas of production, giving her a unique perspective on how performance, environment, and visual detail come together to tell a story.
Ashley worked as Production Designer on Revolution’s Wife - an especially exciting and special project and role to get to play for her due to her love for history and period pieces.