Swati Bandi is a young filmmaker from Hyderabad (India) who describes herself as "impoverished, independent activist/documentary filmmaker and hard-assed associate producer and production designer for medium- budget, multi-starring commercial Hindi feature films."

Swati looks closely at clichés and stereotypes spanning "typical Hindi films" and of course the "typical foreigners (read outsiders)." In her own work Swati strives to subvert these stereotypes with an emphasis on social meaning and critical thinking, touching on taboos such as the representation of sex and gay characters.