Anand Gandhi (born Anand Modi,[1] 26 September 1980) is an Indian filmmaker, entrepreneur, media producer, innovator and systems researcher. He is also the founder/CEO of the Mumbai-based new media studio and systems think tank Memesys Culture Lab.[2] His debut feature film Ship of Theseus (2013), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival won the National Film Award for Best Picture.[3] Gandhi's second film as creative director, executive producer and screenwriter, Tumbbad opened the Critics' Week at the 75th Venice Film Festival, released to a wide critical acclaim in October 2018.
In 2017, he produced An Insignificant Man – a nonfiction thriller directed by Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla on the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party in India. It was released to widespread international and domestic acclaim. The film was picked up by Vice for International distribution.[4]
Actor and producer Ajay Devgn bought rights to Gandhi's play Beta Kaagdo. It has been made into the feature film Helicopter Eela, starring Bollywood actress Kajol.[5] Gandhi is also the co-creator of ElseVR, India's first virtual reality (VR) platform aiming to bring "extraordinary and urgent stories" to the digital mainstream. He has produced the board games SHASN and SHASN: Azadi created by Zain Memon.
Gandhi delivered his INK Talk at the annual INK conference in 2013 where he enumerated his motivations behind making films while expounding on the role of memes in choice-creation.[6] He was a mentor at the Xprize Visioneers 2016 Summit, an annual gathering of the Xprize enterprise, a leading global non-profit dedicated to encouraging "radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity" through incentivized prize competitions.[7][8]
Anand Gandhi unveiled a poster of his next project, Emergence, on the seventh anniversary of his film Ship of Theseus on Sunday. Emergence, which is set in a post-pandemic world, is "the story of bit by bit building of resilience through human ingenuity as scientists and everyday heroes create solutions,” says Gandhi.[10]
In 1996, Anand pursued a program in graphic design and started a studio called Ciceros Graphics. He also taught Adobe Photoshop and other digital tools, new at the time, to traditional graphic designers. At 16, Anand assisted activist and polemist Abhay Mehta with the maintenance of a whistleblowing website.
Anand Gandhi at the Master Class on ′Virtual Reality: The emerging grammar of a new language′, IFFI (2017)
Television, theatre and short films
Anand Gandhi's writing career began in 2000 when he wrote dialogue for the first eighty-two episodes of popular daily soap opera Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and screenplay for Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii, both of which became the longest running shows on Indian Television.[3] The same year, Anand's play Sugandhi was awarded the prestigious National Prize. Most of his plays, including Sugandhi, Pratyancha, Kshanotsav, Na, and Janashtaru were written for the alternative one-act theatre.[14] Anand has penned one mainstream Gujarati play Chal Reverse Ma Jaiye and produced Grey Elephants In Denmark (2009), a Hindi/English play written and directed by Chaitanya Tamhane.[15]
He made his film directorial debut with Right Here, Right Now (2003), a critically acclaimed 30-minute short film that dealt with the idea of cyclic causality and was shot in two continuous takes. The film premiered in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival. His second film Continuum (2006), which he co-wrote and co-directed with Khushboo Ranka, was a montage of simple stories from everyday life, popular culture and folklore that explore "the continuum of life and death, of love and paranoia, of trade and value, of need and invention, of hunger and enlightenment".[14]
Anand has also directed numerous brand films. His film, based on the work of Dr Dnyaneshwar Bhosale, 'Vicks: Care Lives On #TouchOfCare' won 4 awards at Spikes Asia Award 2022 - a Silver in Direction[16] and a Bronze in Casting, Script and Cinematography - most by an Indian film in the Film Craft category.[17][18] His previous film for Vicks, titled 'One In a Million', won 4 Cannes Lions in 2019, including a Silver Lion and 3 Bronze Lions for Creative Strategy, Film Craft, and Film Healthcare. The film also won three Silvers at Spikes Asia for Direction, Script, and Casting in the Filmcraft category.[19] Anand's Lifebuoy ‘Help a child reach 5’ campaign won a Bronze Cannes Lion in 2017 for Creative Effectiveness, along with the “Grand Prix” in PR, and “Silver” in Healthcare at Spikes Asia 2016. His film for Gillette "Soldiers can cry" won a shortlist at Cannes 2020. Anand is on the jury of the One Show 2022.[20][21]
Ship of Theseus
Anand's first feature-length film Ship of Theseus premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was discovered as the "hidden gem" of the festival's selection of films that year.[22] It won the Best Film Award at the Transylvania International Film Festival, Best Cinematography Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival, the Jury Prize for Technical Excellence at the Mumbai Film Festival, Best Actress Award at the Dubai International Film Festival. It was given a Special Mention by the Sutherland Jury "for tickling our intellect and showing us rarely-seen facets of Indian life". Film Critic Derek Malcolm put it on the list of "films that changed our lives", made to celebrate the centenary of The Critics' Circle.[23]
The title of the film alludes to Theseus' paradox, most notably recorded in Life of Theseus, wherein the Greek historian and philosopher Plutarch inquires whether a ship that has been restored by replacing all its parts remains the same ship.[24]
The film was released in India on 19 July 2013. It became the most successful international arthouse film at the Indian box office. In 2014, it won the award for the Best Feature Film of the year at the 61st National Film Awards.[23]
Post Ship of Theseus, Anand distributed Nishtha Jain's documentary film Gulabi Gang under his then-company Recyclewala Films, making it one of the first theatrical distributions for a documentary film in India. Gulabi Gang was awarded as the Best Film on Social Issues and the Best Non-Feature Film editing at the 61st National Film Awards.
Anand made Tumbbad from November 2014 to May 2015. He is credited as the co-writer, executive producer and creative director of Tumbbad.[25]
Memesys Culture Lab
Towards the end of 2015, Anand founded Memesys Culture Lab with Zain Memon, Khushboo Ranka, Vinay Shukla, Neil Pagedar and Pooja Shetty. After some early pioneering work in virtual reality (VR) journalism, the lab launched six VR documentaries on ElseVR, a VR journalism platform. Gandhi and team commissioned documentary filmmakers to capture "extraordinary and urgent stories" in VR, accompanied by a piece of long-form journalism. Author Shubhangi Swarup served as executive editor.
The VR documentaries available on the ElseVR platform are:
The ElseVR team also created two behind-the-scenes documentaries, Dhaakad and Inside Dangal, on the making of Aamir Khan's Dangal. For ElseVR, Memesys partnered with Amnesty International India, Oxfam India and United Nations Virtual Reality (UNVR) and BBC.
Directed by Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla, An Insignificant Man was released in theatres in India on 17 November 2017. The film was released in more than 33 screens across India and continued to perform well into its third and fourth weeks. The box office net of 12 million INR makes it the most successful documentary feature out of India. The film, which chronicles the rise of anti-corruption protests in India and the formation and rise to power of the Aam Aadmi Party, received standing ovations in theatres and was picked up by VICE Media.[26]
Gandhi has also completed development on three projects – Ok Computer, New Aesop's Fables and Some of All Pasts. For Ok Computer, a science-fiction comedy created by collaborators Pooja Shetty and Neil Pagedar, Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan has been confirmed in lead. Australian actor Hugo Weaving may be roped in to play one of the parts.[27]
Anand's play Beta Kaagdo, which he adapted into a screenplay along with Mitesh Shah, is being made into a feature film with Kajol in lead. The film is being directed by Pradeep Sarkar and produced by Ajay Devgn.[5]
Talks and engagements
In 2013, Anand was awarded the "Contribution to Jain Philosophy prize" by Mumbai University.[28] Anand was selected for the INK Fellowship which comprised "around 25 young change-makers from across disciplines like art, science, social concerns, sport and technology, who they believe will be game-changers in their respective fields".[29] He delivered his Ink Talk at the INK2013 conference in Kochi where he spoke at length about his motivations as a filmmaker while "gexploring the ideas, metaphors, memes, and the information packaged in those memes that influence our choices profoundly".[30]
Anand was a speaker at the Singularity University (SingularityU) Forum in India, where he shared his ideas on using insights from cognitive science in narrative structures. The summit also featured talks by Peter Diamandis, Rob Nail, Neil Jacobstein, and Stefan Sagmeister, among others.[31]
Gandhi is also the recipient of the Rajeev Circle Fellowship, designed to "identify and empower young entrepreneurs".[28]
Gandhi delivered a talk on the evolutionary function of awe at the launch of the first DAQRI AR helmet.[32]
Gandhi was a mentor at the Xprize Visioneers 2016 Summit to vote on solutions that needed to be incentivised and accelerated by the prize. Early detection of cancer and technological solutions for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) were the most voted for projects at the summit, along with the Avatar Xprize sponsored by Japanese airlines ANA to "create prototypes of avatars that satisfy the goal of transporting people's consciousness".[7][8][33]
Gandhi moderated a masterclass at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017 on the future of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).[34]
Gandhi was invited by the I&B Ministry to lead the VR chapter of the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), 2017 held in Goa. He delivered a masterclass on VR as the new medium to "preserve records and memories for posterity".[9]
He was born into a Vaishnav Gujarati family and spoke Gujarati for the first ten years of his life, and his surname was Modi.[36] Later his mother got remarried and he was adopted and raised by a Gujarati Jain family, changing his surname to Gandhi. He has always identified himself as thoroughly non-religious and atheistic. He lives with his partner Kani Kusruti in Mumbai. He loves Gujarati poetry, including that of Ramesh Parekh, Mareez, and Shekhadam Abuwala. He writes poetry but does not publish it.[37]
Related Research Articles
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The National Film Award for Best Feature Film is one of the categories in the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in India. It is one of several awards presented for feature films and awarded with the Golden Lotus. The award is announced for films produced in a year across the country, in all Indian languages. As of 2017, the award comprises a Swarna Kamal, a certificate, and a cash prize of ₹ 2,50,000 and is presented to the producer and the director of the film.
Dattatreya Balkrishna Kalelkar, popularly known as Kaka Kalelkar, was an Indian independence activist, social reformer, journalist and an eminent follower of the philosophy and methods of Mahatma Gandhi.
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Nalin Kumar Pandya, popularly known as Pan Nalin, is an Indian filmmaker, best known for directing award-winning movies like Samsara (2001), Valley of Flowers (2006), Angry Indian Goddesses (2015) and the semi-autobiographical Chhello Show (2021). His debut feature Samsara (Miramax) was worldwide critical and commercial triumph and went on to win awards like Best First Feature Film at Durban International Film Festival, "Grand Jury Prize – Special Mention" at AFI Fest, Special Jury Award at Santa Barbara International Film Festival and "Most Popular Feature Film" at Melbourne International Film Festival in 2002. Since then Nalin has been actively making fiction and non-fiction movies which have been coproduced with countries like India, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the USA. Nalin's movies have been distributed worldwide.
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Swami Anand was a monk, a Gandhian activist and a Gujarati writer from India. He was the manager of Gandhi's publications such as Navajivan and Young India and inspired Gandhi to write his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth. He wrote sketches, memoir, biographies, philosophy, travelogues and translated some works.
Ship of Theseus is a 2012 Indian drama film written and directed by Anand Gandhi, and produced by actor Sohum Shah. The film explores "questions of identity, justice, beauty, meaning and death through the stories of an experimental photographer, an ailing monk and an enterprising stockbroker", played by Aida El-Kashef, Neeraj Kabi and Sohum Shah.
War and Peace is a 2002 Indian documentary film directed by Anand Patwardhan. The film covers the Indian and Pakistani nuclear weapons tests in 1998, as well as the nationalist rhetoric that accompanied these tests. It also explores the ill-effects of the Indian test on the surrounding population and the reactions to the test among the government and the public. The latter part of the film also covers the perception of nuclear weapons in Japan and the United States. Upon the film's completion, the Indian censor board demanded that Patwardhan make 21 cuts before it could be released, including cutting all speeches by politicians. Patwardhan refused and took the matter to court; the Bombay high court ruled in his favour a year later, and the film was released without any cuts.
An Insignificant Man is a 2016 Hindi/English Indian socio-political documentary co-produced and directed by Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla and also co-produced by filmmaker Anand Gandhi. and is about the rise of anti-corruption protests in India and the formation and rise to power of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The film received a standing ovation at its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and has gone on to have sold out screenings at major festival across the world including the BFI London Film Festival & Busan International Film Festival.
Ram ke Naam is a 1992 documentary by Indian filmmaker Anand Patwardhan. The film explores the campaign waged by the right-wing Hindu nationalist organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad to build a temple to the Hindu deity Ram at the site of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, as well as the communal violence that it triggered. A couple of months after Ram ke Naam was released, activists of the VHP and other Hindu nationalist groups demolished the Babri Masjid in 1992, provoking further violence. The film earned Patwardhan a wide recognition, and received several national and international awards.
Anish John is a film sound designer, and mixer. He won the National Award for Best Sound Design for the film Labour of Love. He bagged the Best Sound Design award at the 63rd Filmfare Awards, for the film Trapped (2017). He is the Sound Designer of the acclaimed Netflix series 'Sacred Games'. He was also the production sound mixer for Newton (2017) among other accomplishments. Anish has worked in English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, and Marathi films, besides having worked on numerous documentaries and creative advertisement projects.
Neeraj Kabi is an Indian film entertainer and theatre actor, theatre director, and acting coach known for his works in International films and Hindi cinema, theatre, and television.
Abhinay Banker is an actor, director, and writer who works in Gujarati cinema and theatre. After several theatre performances in his early career, he received recognition for his performance in Gujarati play Welcome Zindagi (2010), written and directed by Saumya Joshi, which has been performed over 650 times worldwide. He acted in Gujarati film Kevi Rite Jaish (2012).
Sohum Shah is an Indian actor, producer, and entrepreneur who works in Hindi films. He made his first screen appearance in 2009 with the film Baabarr, where he played the antagonist and in 2012 with the National Award-winning film Ship of Theseus which was produced under his banner, Recyclewala Films. Following his debut, Shah featured in Talvar (2015) and Simran (2017). His film Tumbbad received critical acclaim.
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SHASN (transl. Governance) is a multiplayer political strategy board game created by Zain Memon, and published by Memesys Culture Lab, where each player takes on the role of a politician contesting elections and is required to take a stand on various political and ethical issues. The game was launched on the global crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter on 16 July 2019, and raised $339,045 from 4,209 backers. SHASN was inspired by the documentary An Insignificant Man, on the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party politician and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Zain Memon is a game designer and entrepreneur based in Goa, India. He is the co-founder of Memesys Culture Lab, a studio that works on films, board games, and virtual reality.
Vinay Shukla is an Indian Director, best known for his documentaries An Insignificant Man and While We Watched.
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