Oscar-winning filmmaker Megan Mylan sees film's positive impact

Filmmaker Megan Mylan her maiden Oscar this year by a short film about a poor Indian girl with a cleft lip fetched, and now she can't wait to do more films that could help improve people's lives.

Her 39-minute "Smile Pinki" documentary shows how the life of its outcast heroine, Pinki Sonkar, changes after she is taken to a hospital that provides free surgery to fix the deformity for thousands of children.

The film also helped increase awareness about the condition, gave Sonkar the chance of a better education and brought improvements to her remote village.

The documentary premieres Wednesday on HBO. Speaking from San Francisco, Mylan told Reuters that she plans a limited release of the film in five Indian cities.

"It has sort of turned it upside down, but probably not in the way people would expect. Careerwise it's not a game-changing thing. Documentary filmmaking is such a small field anyway. I'm not swamped with offers, and I'm not terribly surprised, either. It's a wonderful recognition of the fact that I'm not lousy at what I do."