Three South Asian creative directors on being brown women in a male-dominated field

Kajal Patel: I always joke that I came out of the womb wanting to be a director. My grandfather spoke to me of filmmaking when I watched Bollywood movies as a kid, but being from a lower middle class immigrant family in New York, I didn’t have the funds to go to film school. At 22, I found myself as a junior director-producer at the media company Complex, determined to put my hand in every jar. Somehow, I became the director for a documentary on Billie Eilish right before she blew up. I went to her hometown and the interview happened in her childhood ­ bedroom. She was younger then; there was an innocence to her that was beautiful to experience.

Fáiz Akindojuromi spotted behind the scenes while shooting British rapper Central Cee’s album, Can’t Rush Greatness (SYNA edition).

Fáiz Akindojuromi: I started working at the London-based streetwear brand Places+Faces in 2017 when it was reaching its peak. We were travelling around the world doing parties and pop-ups, shoots with music artists; I was also the editor for their magazine. Being the only brown girl—or girl for that matter—in a small team definitely felt like a high-pressure situation.

Kajal Patel: The president of Megan Thee Stallion’s label sat me down and said, “There’s something that Megan has just gone through, and we would love to have you direct these films as she talks about her experience.” My relationship with Megan began at a very vulnerable time in her life and I showed up with the intention of not just wanting to create but also to care. I think that’s what bonded us as we worked for months on the script, which became ‘Protecting Women of Colour’, the video for her New York Times essay titled ‘Why I Speak Up for Black Women’. She called me her friend. From then on, I was with her for commercials and music, in her home or trailer, talking things through.