Sanjay M. Khanduri

Sanjay is a multidisciplinary filmmaker, who conceives, writes and directs his projects including choreographing complex action and musical pieces He hails from New Delhi and majored in Electronics from Delhi University. Wanting to be a part of a job which has a voice, Khanduri chose to leave electronics as a career and turned to media to join as an investigative correspondent with TV-18. Seeing his gift for fiction he was asked to direct for MTV shows. He was then selected in Crest Communications, a top VFX ad-films production house in Mumbai. Within a year he went on to direct ad films for the company. After a freak meet with renowned director Subhash Ghai he was put on board straight as second assistant director on highly appreciated film Taal (1999) starring Aishwarya Rai, Akshay Khanna and Anil Kapoor. Then he joined his favorite director Kundan Shah as chief associate director on the film 'Dil Hai Tumhara' starring Arjun Rampal, Priety Zinta, Rekha, Jimmy Shergil and Mahima Chaudhary. It is here that Kundan Shah who he considers his guru figure, seeing his writing acumen, advised him to write a high concept low budgeted film to get a break, a film that would make a producer sleepless and get him to sign you as a director. Thats what Khanduri exactly did. Debuting with his dark comic thriller 'Ek Chalis Ki Last Local' (meaning: The Last Local Train of 1:40 am) Sanjay Khanduri deeply marks his presence in Hindi independent cinema as a writer and director. This new age one-night film had a unique concept of the protagonist's journey in the underbelly of Mumbai for 2.5 hrs with film duration too as 2.5 hours. With just 180 prints released film gained word of mouth and ran for 5 weeks and then became a DVD cult among st youngsters. The film has won high accolades from masses and critics for its innovative concept and screenplay. The film 'Ek Chalis Ki Last Local' (meaning The Last Tube of 1:40 am) is weaved around true incident of his life of missing his last train back home, one rainy night. It received four stardust nominations including Best Debutant and a Silver Palm Award for Excellence in Filmmaking. It was picked by Star TV and showcases on their Hotstar platform now. His next film 'Kismet Love Paisa Dilli' was again a one-night social thriller satire. This film did average due to its release issues but still garnered him a Golden Palm Award in Mexico International Film Festival and Medal of Honor for Best Original Screenplay. Then he made special episodes of award winning crime series 'Gumrah' on Channel V and then some episodes on 'Hostages' on Disney Hotstar along with Sudhir Mishra. Khanduri was selected to be Creative Director on special projects with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Pictures and Blockbuster Movies. He is noticed for his obviously nascent cinematic style and is picked by Abundantia Entertainment for making a real-time social thriller film. Khanduri is also scripting a mega web series as a creator & director along with the writer of Baahubali and RRR, Mr. KV Vijayendra Prasad. Very selective in work, Khanduri's beat of cinema is very different from the rest of his league. He also has made few renowned advertisements like Ajio, Mrf, Ceat and now planning his third feature film at year end.