Ritendra Datta

Ritendra Datta is a San Francisco based screenwriter, filmmaker, cinematographer, playwright, and film editor, in addition to being the Head of Applied AI at Databricks. He has previously worked at Facebook and Google. Ritendra has written and directed short films in Hindi, English, and Bengali. His films (Alice Memorial Park, This Day That Year, O Mother Where Art Thou, Life and Debt, Dark Circle) have been selected and/or won awards at the South Asian International Film festival, Chicago South Asian Film Festival, the Phoenix Film Festival,  The Poppy Jasper International Film Festival, Santa Fe Film Festival, Indian Film Festival of Cincinnati, India International Film Festival of Boston, International Film Festival of Shimla, Ayodhya Film Festival, Pune Short Film Festival, and several others.  In 2022, Ritendra’s film ‘Fortune Seller’, made in 2 days, won 11 out of the 16 award categories at the prestigious 48 Hour Film Competition in San Jose. His Music Video “Corona Ki Jung” made and released during Covid-19 quickly reached 1+ million plays upon release.  He has also co-written ‘Intervention’ with late national award winning actor Vikram Gokhale, which would be his last short film when released. Besides films, in the last 3 years Ritendra has written and directed plays in Hindi and Bengali, which have been staged across the Bay Area and watched by over 2000+ paid audience members, designed lighting for multiple theatrical productions, conducted photography and videography for numerous events and live performances.