Nupur Chitalia is an Indian-Canadian filmmaker and multidisciplinary storyteller based in Toronto. Her work is rooted in a deep reverence for ancestral knowledge, identity, and the unseen threads that connect us. With over a decade of experience across her films—screened and awarded at festivals globally—explore universal themes of belonging, transformation, and the human condition through an intimate and holistic lens.

As a full-time storyteller at the University of Toronto’s business school, Nupur thrives in an environment that fuels her curiosity for lifelong learning. Her daily engagement with scholars, professors, and students from around the world gives her a unique vantage point into a wide array of cultures, industries and ideas, which continually enriches her narrative practice. This setting nurtures her commitment to weaving complex realities and diverse perspectives into her storytelling.

She is also the founder of Nucraft Productions, a creative home through which she tells stories of remarkable people and projects shaping our collective future. From climate change and food sovereignty to mental health, personal transformation, and cultural revitalization, Nupur’s production work highlights voices and movements that strive to nurture resilience and interconnectedness in the face of global challenges.

Before 2024, Nupur’s journey as a filmmaker was largely dedicated to bringing to life stories entrusted to her—whether as a director, producer, cinematographer, or editor. These experiences allowed her to holistically learn the craft of filmmaking. Yet, with each project and her personal journey, she felt a quiet but strong pull toward something greater: a calling to create work that more deeply aligned with her purpose—to share stories of interconnectedness, rooted in the wisdom of the past yet alive to the urgency of the present.

In 2024, Nupur began her most personal and expansive project to date: Jātrā – The Journey Within. At its heart, this documentary series is an exploration of the interconnectedness of the world we live in by looking into the three most vital human relationships—our connection with our own self, with others, and with nature. Filmed across continents, Jātrā immerses viewers in ancient practices, rituals, and wisdom systems that have endured despite centuries of colonialism, capitalism, and cultural erasure. These traditions are not presented as nostalgic remnants of the past, but as living, evolving blueprints that continue to enable communities to cultivate a deeper harmony within themselves, with one another, and with the natural world.

The series explores how ancestral ways of being can offer profound insight into some of today’s most pressing challenges—mental health crises, widespread social disconnection, and climate breakdown. As a culturally hyphenated filmmaker raised in a post-colonial world, Nupur brings a layered perspective to this work. What began as a personal journey to repair her own severed ties to ancestral Vedic traditions has evolved into a larger collective inquiry into how humanity can reconnect to its roots without romanticizing the past or replicating harm.

Travelling solo for a year across the world, Nupur is developing Jātrā with a spirit of humility and collaboration, working closely with cultural practitioners, knowledge-keepers, artists, and communities who have preserved the ancient wisdom against all odds. Now, she extends an open call to collaborators, cultural practitioners, and supporters who believe in the urgency of this work. More than a documentary series, it is a shared call to preserve what grounds us, to uplift ancestral wisdom, and to imagine new ways of living—where interconnectedness between self, community, and nature is not only remembered, but reawakened and re-woven into the fabric of our future.