Anand Gandhi

Anand Gandhi
Anand Gandhi in 2011
Born26 September 1980 (1980-09-26) (age 44)
Mumbai, India
NationalityIndian
Occupation(s)Filmmaker, Entrepreneur, Writer, Director, Producer, Systems Researcher
Years active2000–present
PartnersShreya Dudheria (2021–present)
Kani Kusruti (2015–2021)

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]

While on the steering committee of the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Gandhi served as the creative director of the new VR chapter of the festival.[9]

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]

  1. ^ "Anand Gandhi comments on…". reddit. 19 April 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  2. ^ "Linkedin Bio".
  3. ^ "Kiran's Theseus Crusade". The Telegraph. 10 July 2013. Archived from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  4. ^ Ramachandran, Naman (13 October 2017). "Vice picks up 'An Insignificant Man'". Variety. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  5. ^ "Anand Gandhi: Excited about my next starring Kajol". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  6. ^ INKtalks (23 May 2014), Anand Gandhi: Why I make films, archived from the original on 12 December 2021, retrieved 5 December 2017
  7. ^ Anand Gandhi [@memewala] (29 September 2016). "The XPrize Visioneers Summit has barely begun and already triggered so much inspiration!" (Tweet). Retrieved 5 December 2017 – via Twitter.
  8. ^ "XPRIZE homepage". Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  9. ^ "Anand Gandhi inspires students during Virtual Reality master class at IFFI 2017". A Potpourri of Vestiges. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  10. ^ "Wanted To Make An Accurate Science Fiction: Anand Gandhi On Upcoming Film 'Emergence'". outlookindia.com/. Retrieved 2 September 2020.