Producer Ekta Kapoor along with filmmaker Guneet Monga and author Tahira Kashyap Khurrana recently announced their endeavour - a cinema collective named Indian Women Rising in an effort to promote and accentuate Indian female content creators across the globe.

As their first project, the initiative has chosen to support the internationally acclaimed short film Bittu where the collective will put its muscle to aid the film's campaign at the Oscars run.

Ekta Kapoor took to her social media profile, last evening, and confirmed the news. She shared, “Bittu is a film that follows a fierce little girl who refuses to be forgotten! This Republic Day, we at Indian Women Rising are proud to present a film made by an Indian student Karishma Dev Dube called Bittu, recipient of the 47th Student Academy Award”

“After a stellar festival run with 18+ festivals and multiple wins, Bittu is now in the run for the OSCARS Let's rise together! Sparkles @IndWomenRising  #IndianWomenRising #IWR @guneetm @tahira_k @RuchikaaKapoor” read the full tweet.

Directed by Karishma Dev Dube, a past Dean’s fellow from NYU, the unreleased Bittu has bagged the honour of the 47th 'Student Academy Award' and is now set to run the race for the Oscar for Short Film Category.

Inspired by the infamous school poisoning of 2013, Bittu explores the close friendship between two school girls on this seemingly normal day at school. Set in the picturesque locations against the backdrop of Himalayas, Bittu follows the story of an eight-year-old who must take matters into her own hands when her community fails to protect its most vulnerable.

Ekta Kapoor, Guneet Monga and Tahira Kashyap Khurrana aims to empower this story presented by a strong team of women comprising of Karishma Dev Dube as the director, Shreya Dev Dube as the cinematographer and Mary Evangelista as the producer.