Jaswant Dev Shrestha – Festival of Saraswati Puja

We had the opportunity to chat with Utah Film Festival alumni and recent Emmy winner Jaswant Shrestha about his series Festival of Saraswati. Festival of Saraswati is an official selection of the 12th annual Utah Film Festival.

Children are given their first reading and writing lessons during this festival in the belief that the Goddess of knowledge Saraswati will help them excel in school. This day is also considered the best day to start learning new things.

What was the inspiration to make Festival of Saraswati?

The inspiration for creating the Festival of Saraswati puja was my effort to preserve Nepali culture and share it with the world.

From idea to completion, how did Festival of Saraswatichange?

From the idea’s inception, I knew it would be a crazy ride. But luckily, production went as planned except for the funding part. 

What was the biggest challenge in getting this series made? 

The episode is a part of a 5 part series called Festivals. My initial idea was to produce a 16-part series. But no network was ready to fund it, so I ended up funding it myself and could only produce five episodes. But now Discovery Channel Asia has acquired it for distribution and also this episode won an Emmy this year.

What do you think is the most important takeaway from Festival of Saraswati?

The takeaway would be to preserve and celebrate our culture and traditional values as our ancestors did.

If you could have a do-over with Festival of Saraswati, is there anything that you would have done differently? If so, what would you change?

If I had funding, I would have made this Series a Docu-Drama. Recreate those ancient times.

What do you have in the works?

I am working on an 8-part Docu-series filmed in Portugal.

Jaswant Dev Shrestha is an Award-winning Actor and an Emmy-winning Documentarian. The National Academy of Television Arts And Sciences Pacific Southwest presented Jaswant Dev Shrestha with an Emmy Statuette for winning the “Outstanding Achievement in the Religion” category for his cultural film “Festival of Saraswati Puja.” His journey into the film industry started when he was four years old.

Shrestha has received 9 Emmy awards nominated in various categories. He is the first Nepali American Filmmaker to receive such an Honor.