Barefoot Empress

Barefoot Empress is an Indo-American short documentary film directed by Vikas Khanna. The film depicts the life story of a woman in India who enrolls in first grade at the age of 96. The film is co-produced by Oscar nominated Doug Roland and Deepak Chopra serves as an executive producer.^[1]

Barefoot Empress
Directed by	Vikas Khanna
Produced by	Doug Roland Bindu Khanna
Starring	Karthyayani Amma
Cinematography	Omee Ganatra
Edited by	Ashish Uikey Archit Rastogi
Music by	Raashi Kulkarni Ila Paliwal Priyabrata Panigrahi
Production companies	Doug Roland Films House of Omkaar Saffron Pen 1ampictures
Release date	13 May 2021 (2021-05-13)
Running time	15 minutes
Countries	India United States
Language	Malayalam
Budget	$5,000

Summary

Barefoot Empress, a 15-minute short film revolves around Karthyayani Amma, who, having never had access to education as a girl, finally gets a chance at education. At 96-years-old she was the oldest among the 43,330 candidates who appeared for the 'Aksharalaksham' test, a fourth standard equivalent examination. Karthyayani Amma scored a 98 out of 100 on a literacy examination conducted by the Kerala government. The state-run Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority (KSLMA) has certified that her score is a record.

Production history

Karthyayani Amma's story caught director Vikas Khanna's attention via a tweet in 2018. Hearing the first-hand account of her life inspired the making of Barefoot Empress.^{[citation needed]}

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2021	Bangalore Shorts Film Festival	Festival Award	Won	[2]
2022	ShortShorts Film Festival	Biogen award	Won	[3]
2022	Big Apple Film Festival	Short Documentary	Won	[4]