Having won the Audience Choice Award for her short film I'm Afraid I Am Hitler at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, and currently working on a project about modern-day slavery in the diplomatic world, it's clear that director Ruchika Lalwani is not afraid to tell a story she believes in

Ruchika Lalwani, a New York Film Academy graduate, packed a piece of brilliance in an 18-minute segment and then forgot about it for a year. The 24 year-old director went on to work along the Indo-American film corridor, oblivious to the genius she had created. It was not until she began getting an unexpected response to her film that she decided the world ought to watch I'm Afraid I am Hitler.

Early this month, the film won the Viola M Marshall Audience Choice Award for Best Short (grand prize) at the
prestigious Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF), tipped as an Oscar-boosting film festival.
I'm Afraid I am Hitler is Ruchika's thesis after she completed a one-year diploma course in filmmaking. Set in 1976 in America, it's an enigmatic account of a man who thinks he's Adolf Hitler, and forbids himself from going out into the world.u00a0

Where did the idea of a troubled mind come from?
It's about people dealing with guilt, how a person would feel when he knew he had caused destruction on a wide scale. The thought was exactly how the film turned out to be. It stemmed from the basic idea that you had harmed someone. So what now? The protagonist confines himself to his room and it's a downward spiral then on.u00a0