HOD, Associate Professor of Direction
Chennai Campus

LATA MURUGAN
HOD, Associate Professor of Direction
She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Stella Maris College, Chennai and then pursued her interests in media at the Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai in the Social Communications Media diploma course. Finding her passion for visual media, she studied Video and TV Production at Michigan State University, East Lansing and then graduated with an M.A. in Film Production from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.
Moving to Southern Africa opened up opportunities to work with several international NGOs such as PSI (Populations Services International), UNIFEM and UNESCO in writing and directing educational films as well as TV commercials for advertising agencies. She spent the six years in Zambia and Zimbabwe also training students in various aspects of filmmaking as well as developing the curriculum and conducting short term courses for the UNESCO Zimbabwe Film and Video Training Project and the Media for Development Trust. She has also taught Radio and TV production at the Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai and Film Production at the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, Bengaluru.
For ten years, she taught film analysis to cinematography students as well as ideation and script development for feature films to screenwriting students at the Mindscreen Film Institute, Chennai. Guiding direction students on character development and creating non-fiction projects, has been her forte.
She is extremely passionate about sensitizing the next generation of filmmakers to gender issues in cinema.