Impact & Outreach
Hoop Like This is more than a basketball story—it is about representation, ambition, and the courage to pursue a dream without a roadmap. Through screenings, conversations, and community partnerships, we want the film to challenge assumptions about who belongs in sports, help South Asian and immigrant audiences see new possibilities for themselves, and inspire greater support for athletes building paths where none previously existed.
Host a Screening
Bring Hoop Like This to your school, team, workplace, theater, or community, paired with an athlete Q&A, panel, or conversation about identity, representation, and belonging in sports.
Partner With Us
Co-host a conversation, sponsor access for students and young athletes, share the film with your network, or connect us with communities that need to see it.
Sponsor an Activation
Brands and businesses can support community screenings, athlete appearances, youth basketball events, merchandise collaborations, and other experiences that connect audiences with the film.
THE STORY
Hoop Like This documents the unknown world of brown basketball. We follow the team’s journey from their historical debut in 2022 , and their crushing loss to the $1M defending champions, to their year-long grassroots scouting efforts across India, Taiwan, Canada, and the United States to rebuild the team. We end with the team's redemption in 2023 where an incredible first-round victory shocks the world and creates the biggest upset ever in the TBT’s decade-long history.
This is not your typical underdog story, this is the story of pioneers. It’s the story of athletes, coaches, sports professionals, and the families that support them (or don’t), who come together and bet on themselves, daring to believe beyond what’s been expected of them. They are heroes who pulled off historic firsts, laying the foundation and lessons for future athletes to succeed.
Through this film, we learn about the rich, decades-long culture of Indian basketball across not just South Asia, but also through the world's largest diaspora in the United States and Canada. We watch as these 12 athletes balance their dual lives as doctors, engineers, gas station owners, and real estate agents, seeing the impact of what this team means for not just their personal lives, but their professional careers as athletes.
Our story eradicates the stereotypes that hurt the AAPI community, repositions their masculinity and desirability through sport, and also shows the socioeconomic diversity of the world's largest population through this team of 12 players. Ultimately, this story proves that brown athletes are a force to be reckoned with, that they can hoop like this.
DONATE TO HELP FINISH THE FILM
Hoop Like This is a fiscally sponsored project of Film Independent, a 501(c)(3) non-profit independent media arts organization. Film Independent will receive grants for the charitable purposes of “Hoop Like This,” provide oversight to ensure that grant funds are used in accordance with grant agreements, and provide reports as required by the grantor. Contributions for the charitable purposes of “Hoop Like This” must be made payable to Film Independent and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
To bring this vision to life, we need supporters like you who understand that its mission is greater than any one person, team, or story.
OUR CORE TEAM
Shubhangi Shekhar
Shubhangi Shekhar
Shubhangi Shekhar
Director & Producer
Gautam Kapur
Shubhangi Shekhar
Shubhangi Shekhar
Executive Producer & Founder of India Rising
Akhil Hegde
Shubhangi Shekhar
Akhil Hegde
Executive Producer
NAV
Shubhangi Shekhar
Akhil Hegde
Executive Producer
Kunal Patel
Pulkit Datta
Pulkit Datta
Producer
Pulkit Datta
Pulkit Datta
Pulkit Datta
Producer
Zach Galst
Pulkit Datta
Tony Castle
Producer
Tony Castle
Pulkit Datta
Tony Castle
Producer
Roxy Hunt
Mazen Mahfouz
Moh Mahfouz
Producer
Moh Mahfouz
Mazen Mahfouz
Moh Mahfouz
Co-Producer
Mazen Mahfouz
Mazen Mahfouz
Mazen Mahfouz
Co-Producer
R.J. Cui
Mazen Mahfouz
Mazen Mahfouz
Co-Producer