Smile Pinki

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Smile Pinki is a 2008 American documentary directed by Megan Mylan. It tells the story of Pinki Sonkar, a five-year-old girl with a cleft lip living in a poor village in India, who is shunned and cannot attend school. A social worker named Pankaj travels from village to village to gather children for free cleft lip surgery through The Smile Train program. Pinki receives life-changing surgery at G.S. Memorial Hospital, performed by plastic surgeon Dr. Subodh Kumar Singh. The film also features Ghutaru, another child helped by the program. Smile Pinki won the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 81st Academy Awards. In India, the film raised awareness with screenings and media attention, and 8 million free DVDs were distributed; it was broadcast on HBO, Sundance Channel, and Doordarshan. Pinki later tossed the coin at the Wimbledon men’s singles final in 2013.