This week the National Geographic explorer and award-winning wildlife film-maker, photographer, presenter, and founder of Bambee Studios, Aishwarya Sridhar. Aishwarya was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India in 1997, the only child to parents Sridhar Ranganathan and Rani Sridhar. Her father is a chartered accountant and her mother an advertising professional. Both her parents help Aishwarya with the business aspects of her film studio and have been instrumental in introducing her to wildlife and conservation from an early age. She has always been passionate about protecting the natural environment, climate change and the impact on India’s wildlife. Although career pathways for women in filmmaking in India are limited, Aishwarya created her own opportunities beginning in college at Pillai College of Arts, Science and Commerce where she studied Mass Media. Her first two films were picked up by DD National and National Geographic WILD respectively, and it wasn’t long before the awards came her way for her conservation work, including the Sanctuary Asia Young Naturalist Award,,which she won at age 15, The Princess Diana Award for Young Change Makers aged 9-25, the Woman Icon Award, and the International Inspirational Women's Award. In 2020, she became the first Indian woman to win at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award.  Aishwarya also became the youngest conservation storyteller from India to join the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) as an Emerging League Fellow. Her work has been telecast on leading networks like National Geographic WILD, Discovery, Arte, KBS, NHK, Love Nature and BBC Earth and her images have been published worldwide in newspapers and magazines, such as BBC Wildlife, The Guardian, and Times of India. Aishwarya is currently working on.a documentary about a leopard, Rana, in the Jhalana Leopard Reserve.   Aishwarya's website: https://www.aishwaryasridhar.com/ Instagram: Chikoo_wild https://www.instagram.com/chikoo_wild/ Ash’s Playlist: Taylor Swift Michael Jackson Hindi Bollywood Soundtracks    Ash’s favorite female artists: Beverly Joubert Shannon Wild Vanessa Berlowitz Rathika Ramaswamy Alia Bhatt Priyanka Chopra Kartiki Gonsalves Guneet Monga  Host: Chris Stafford Produced by Hollowell Studios Follow @theaartpodcast on Instagram AART on Facebook Email: [email protected] Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/aart--5814675/support.