Writer / Director / Editor / Music Composer

PaaniA Documentary Short Film

A documentary short film about water, community, and what it takes to change something. 60 selections · 18 countries · 17 awards.

60 Festivals selected

18 Countries

17 Awards won

Director's Biography

Akshita Vashisht

Writer · Director · Editor · Composer

I am a high school student with a deep passion for science, art, and music, disciplines I have dedicated myself to for over 10 years. My goal is to combine these three passions to create meaningful solutions for communities facing water scarcity around the world. Through this film, I hope to raise global awareness, inspire support for sustainable water initiatives, help generate funds to build more water-access solutions, and educate people about the importance of water conservation.

About Paani

Paani — meaning 'water' in Hindi — is a 3.5-minute documentary short film written, directed, edited, and scored by Akshita Vashisht. The film follows the journey of a community in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, India, where women and children walk hours each day to access clean water.

Shot during Akshita's fieldwork with Project Oasis, the film weaves together intimate interviews, on-the-ground footage, and an original score to tell a story about scarcity, resilience, and what changes when a community gains access to clean water.

Set in rural Rajasthan, India, in the Thar Desert, "Paani" ("Water" in Hindi) is a documentary about desert life in India shaped by water scarcity. The film captures families whose daily lives revolve around securing water in the harsh desert climate. They find hope when engineers drill nearly 500 feet below the surface to reach drinkable groundwater, transforming the village’s future. "Paani" is a story of a community's resilience and the value of a single drop.

Film Details

Runtime: 3.5 minutes
Genre: Documentary Short
Director: Akshita Vashisht
Music: Akshita Vashisht (original score)
Filmed: Thar Desert, Rajasthan, India
Language: Hindi / English

How It Started

The documentary wasn't the original goal. I traveled to the Thar Desert to oversee the construction of a water well through Project Oasis — and filmed over 400 minutes of footage along the way. The conversations with village residents, the construction process, the faces of the women and children most affected by water scarcity: it all added up to something that needed to be shared.

I created 'Paani' afterward as a tool for future fundraising and awareness. Drawing on years of music and visual art training, I shaped the pacing, structure, and emotional tone — then edited 400+ minutes of footage down to 3.5 minutes.

The Craft

Fourteen years of visual art training and years of music shaped how I approached the edit. Pacing a documentary is a compositional problem — knowing when to hold a shot, when to cut, and how silence and sound interact. 'Paani' is the clearest expression of how my creative and technical interests come together.