Sonal Singh leaves behind her career as an entrepreneur to pursue writing, directing, starring in, and producing her own micro-drama FoundHer
Sonal Singh stars as Sanya Mittal, a woman who has been kicked out of her own startup
What does a filmmaker and a startup have in common? Even though both the professions are poles apart, at the germ of both, is creativity. That’s how entrepreneur Sonal Singh first took on the role of Sanya Mittal, the star of the new hit micro-drama FoundHer, a show about a girlboss who gets kicked out of her own startup that she built from scratch.
At 40, Singh left her own startup Fittr, an online health platform, to pursue this newfound passion of filmmaking. “I’ve always been a writer, but I had never written a screenplay. So I started with the concept of ‘write what you know’. What came naturally was a story set in the startup ecosystem about a woman navigating life after leaving her company,” she says.
Singh wrote, co-directed, produced, and starred in her series, which has now gained over 5 lakh views on her Instagram handle @masalacappuccino. The writing, she says, was the most cathartic part. “The writing was my favourite part. Just all the different characters you meet, a composite of them and the experiences that you’ve had.” While FoundHer is fictional, Singh is clear that it is “emotionally truthful.
The characters, events, the company, that’s all imagined. But the emotions, the power dynamics, the loneliness that one feels after public success, the way women are judged differently in those situations, that’s very real.”
Sonal Singh
Instead of choosing the safer route of podcasts or interview-led content, Singh chose the relatively new and risky format of micro-dramas. “I was really interested in micro-dramas. I saw they were gaining attention in China and then the US,” she says. What intrigued her was the contradiction of shrinking attention spans and deep emotional impact. “In a 90-second reel, you can carry shock, humour, and heartbreak.”
Instagram was the perfect home for this kind of storytelling. “You’re constantly scrolling past confidence and motivational stuff, especially podcasts. I thought, what if someone stops on something that is more about vulnerability?”
Making the series meant entering an entirely new world. “It is intimidating, especially as an outsider, because I had no background in filmmaking per se,” she admits, “Often, people assumed I was there to fund projects. They’d say, ‘Are you going to produce something for us?’ And I’d say, ‘No, I’m making something of my own!’,”she laughs.
What helped her push through was her founder mindset. “I learned really quickly that your script is almost like a pitch deck. The stronger your script and your vision, the more likely you will attract the right people.” She was also clear that she wanted to retain control. “There was a particular story that I wanted to tell. It should be told in a certain way. That type-A control freak personality was also there,” she jokes.
The team came together through cold emails and word-of-mouth. “That’s the beauty of Mumbai. If you’re relentless and you have a vision, things can really happen.” There were delays, setbacks, and even run-ins with the cops on set. But there were also moments of quiet validation, like the day she held a physical copy of her script for the first time. She says with a wide smile, “I was like, oh my God, I’ve never seen my script printed before.”
With no full-time team, Singh ended up learning far more than she had planned to. “I’ve even learned how to edit myself. I’m nowhere near as good as the experts, but I can do a rough edit now. I understand the terms.” Nevertheless, she is extremely grateful to her team and “the people who trusted me — actors, people in post-production — who helped me and explained the process to me so patiently.”
The response to FoundHer has been overwhelming and surprisingly universal. “It’s appealing to both men and women, and a lot of people beyond the founder universe,” she says, “At its core the show is not just about startups. It’s really about when you face loss and humiliation and how you reinvent yourself from the ground up.”
As for what’s next, Singh already has a larger vision in mind. “Season one is more about loss. And then the reinvention part comes in season two. I want it to become a culturally relevant story with the potential to grow into a larger narrative universe.”
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