Get to know me

I'm Ashika. A lifelong in-betweener. Born in the UK, raised across the UAE and the US by Indian parents, I never fully belonged to one place. I still live between cultures: wife to a Nigerian-American husband, raising mixed-race children in Spain. Maybe that's why I've always paid such close attention to people, and to the stories they carry. Life happens in the details, and stories happen somewhere between the lines.

I trained in documentary filmmaking at OTOXO Productions in Barcelona, on a one-month intensive where I co-directed three short documentaries: ‘Beneath the Dust’ (an artist preserving Catalan heritage through hydraulic tile restoration), ‘Nūn’ (a woman who holds onto her culture, and builds a home, through a café that makes space for people displaced by conflict), ‘The Blue That Holds Us’ (a project using surfing to bring attention to climate change and ocean health).

Meeting those people, and telling their stories, is why I've gone back to OTOXO for the year-long program.

I'm also in the development stages of my own documentary, built around burnout and what's left there once the exhaustion lifts.

Before filmmaking, I spent fifteen years in operations in pharmaceutical drug development. A career built on precision, complex moving parts, and listening carefully in high-stakes rooms. It turns out those are filmmaking skills too.

Alongside the documentary work, I create brand films for founders, with a strong focus on women building something real. You can see how I work here.

Barcelona has been a second home for my husband, our three children, and myself since 2023. We spend our weekends on the beaches in our backyard and we travel as often as we can, for the food, the culture, and the memories.