Sonali graduated from NID as an Animation Filmmaker. Starting out as an On air promo producer at MTV, she went on to create several animated and mixed media spots for both MTV and Nickelodeon. With an interest in spaces and set design, she worked on a host of advertising films as a production designer to later be a part of Flying Saucer as a design partner. She is the production designer for films – Hajyaani and Ghoomketu and the Netflix web series, Taj Mahal 1989 and Choona.
While at MTV, her spot – ‘Merit List’ was selected in international collection ‘Shots’. The advertising films she has designed for work have won several nominations at Cannes, Clios, Adfest, New York Festivals and many awards at Kyoorius, Abbys and Promax. ‘Taj Mahal 1989’ won a host of awards at various platforms including the Brand Equity Spott awards for Best Series.
Sonali sees film design as a powerful medium and delves deep into understanding and creating the worlds that set the stage for a good telling of the story. For her the characters are defined by the spaces they live in and vice versa. Every story thus is a study of its characters. Understanding the characters and their journeys is essential in constructing the evolving physical as well as the psychological spaces within a film. Sonali is also a partner in ‘Antariksh Prasaar’, a media lab experimenting in content and ideas.