Ben Rekhi is an award-winning filmmaker of Punjabi and American descent. He produced the Independent Spirit Award-nominated Bomb the System, directed the SXSW Audience Award winner Waterborne starring Shabana Azmi, and wrote the English Dialogues for Ben Kingsley and Amitabh Bachchan in the Bollywood film Teen Patti. Rekhi returned to directing with The Ashram, a spiritual thriller starring Academy Award Winner Melissa Leo, Kal Penn, and Radhika Apte which was released by The Orchard, and his third feature Watch List, a crime thriller, was co-financed by Bron Studios (Joker) and executive produced by XYZ Films (The Raid). The film premiered at Deauville before being nominated for eleven Filipino Oscars, ultimately winning two. His next film The Reunited States, a documentary executive produced by Van Jones and Meghan McCain, released on Amazon before its nationwide PBS premiere. His documentary short The Breakthrough Group was qualified for the 2026 Oscars, and he is in post-production on Last Man In Tower, adapted from the book of the same name by Aravind Adiga who also wrote White Tiger, upon which the Netflix hit film is based. Breaking the Code, a documentary about his father Silicon Valley pioneer Kanwal Rekhi, is his sixth feature film.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Nowadays it’s common to see Indians at the top of tech companies. That wasn’t always the case. My father arrived in America with $8 in his pocket and had to fight his way to the top, through prejudice and adversity, forever changing the perceptions of Indians in America in the process.
What began as a biographical portrait of my father evolved into something much more intimate—a story of identity, family, sacrifice and loss. While he managed to overcome the odds in his pursuit of the American dream, I never fully understood the toll it exacted on him along the way. He met and married my mom, a white American woman, a mere ten years after bi-racial marriages were decriminalized. Tech was a white man’s world, where no promotion was ever handed out to people of color. Even now, we could have never expected the turbulence that would enter into our lives when we began filming.
It was a challenge being the filmmaker but also a subject. My co-director, Swetlana—a queer journalist and filmmaker based in India— brought objectivity and perspective to this very intimate process. Navigating identity while growing up in a small town in India, Swetlana’s journey reflects both my father’s journey as well as mine.
Our hope is that this film can bridge cultures and hearts, to be a reminder that citizenship is not stamped on passports but forged in the daily struggles of society. In the debate over immigration today, my father’s story shows just how much people from overseas bring to the table, not just take from it. My parents built a life across borders and time, proving what’s possible when just one person believes in you. Now, to truly know who I am, I first had to understand everything they overcame. This film is my personal quest.
