When Priya Samant moved from Goregaon to Boston around 20 years ago, the techie was fuelled by the great American dream. But her heart was always in the movies. Samant grew up near Goregaon Film City, and was surrounded by creative people.

The 46-year-old, who is now a co-founder of a tech-company in the US, has started channelling that passion by working as “impact advisor” for Indian films. Her recent foray was with the just released The Kerala Story. Samant segued into movies when the Hindi film Jhalki, directed by Brahmanand S Singh, was screened at the Boston Film Festival in 2019. A chance meeting with the director set her on track. “When I met Singh, I told him how I saw a huge gap between the narrative and the reach,” she says, “All the stories coming from India seemed to have great content and actors, but because they were not necessarily big stars, these movies failed to generate the massive appeal they could have enjoyed in both, the US and in domestic markets.” Singh later put her onto other Indian directors and producers. Her role was to promote films among the diaspora, before and after the release.