Nina Sabnani is an animator and film-maker, currently an Associate Professor at the
Industrial Design Centre, I I T Bombay, also pursuing her doctoral studies in storytelling. Nina
graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda and completed her Masters on a Fulbright
Fellowship at Syracuse University, USA. She taught at the N I D, Ahmedabad for over twenty-
two years and was a founder member of the Animation and New Media disciplines there.
Nina has authored and illustrated several books for Tulika. Her book, Mukund and Riaz, based
on her father’s personal story of partition began as an animated film and later illustrated for
Tulika. The book has won critical acclaim internationally. Deux Amis, its French edition, was
launched by Syros at the Paris Book fair in 2007 and subsequently was published in Pakistan by
Oxford University Press. She illustrated My Mother's Sari which was selected as an Outstanding
International Book for 2007 in the U.S.A.

Her recent book HOME is based on her research on the Kaavad storytelling tradition of
Rajasthan, designed to elicit stories from children. The approach is inclusive as the images
portray several families and homes that children could identify with. In our complex society a
family could be a large joint family or a single parent unit or a gay couple. Often illustrations
depict a family unit consisting of father, mother and two children, alienating those that do not
belong to such a family. Illustrated houses may also portray a normative image of a built house
and therefore exclude children living in other homes or/and do not adequately recognize all
habitat. HOME encourages discussions and sharing of stories amongst children themselves and
between children and adults.
Nina’s current passion is doing collaborative work with traditional artisans and her quest to
understand story continues.