Maithili Rao is a freelance film critic and author of Smita Patil, A Brief Incandescence (HarperCollins, now translated into Marathi). Her next book, Millennial Women in Bollywood: A New Brand? will be out next year. Due for publication 2022 is an anthology on motherhood, The Oldest Love Story co-edited with Rinki Bhattacharya. She currently writes a column on The Current Cinema for Man’s World and has written for major national and international publications: The Hindu, Frontline, Film Comment, International Film Guide, Sunday Observer and Eves Weekly where she wrote a column on Images of Women. She contributed chapters to various books on cinema and served on national and international juries.