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 Ashim Ahluwalia studied film at Bard College, New York. His directorial debut, John & Jane (2005), premiered at the Toronto and Berlin Film Festivals in 2006. It was the first Indian film to be released theatrically by HBO Films. His second feature, Miss Lovely (2012), had its world premiere in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival. His third film, the true-life gangster epic Daddy (2017) opened on 2000 screens worldwide on Sept 8th, 2017.His short film Events in a Cloud Chamber (2016) made on Super 8 with famed Indian modernist painter Akbar Padamsee opened at the 73rd Venice Film Festival in the Classics section and has gone on to show at the BFI London Film Festival and at the Museum of Modern Art in New Directors/ New Films, amongst numerous others.His newest project, the anthology folk horror film, The Field Guide to Evil (2018), had a world premiere at South by Southwest (SXSW) on March 16th, 2018, after which it opened theatrically in the US (distributed by Neon) and on Netflix.In May 2013, he received the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters from Bard College, his alma mater. The award is "given in recognition of a significant contribution to artistic or literary heritage." In November 2013, he was selected to be on the Jury of the 8th edition of the Rome Film Festival for the CinemaXXI section.Ahluwalia is the only Indian director to have had his work premiere in the official selections of the Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto and SXSW festivals. Sight and Sound's Jonathan Romney has described Ahluwalia as "a very impressive talent".He was named "one of the ten best emerging film directors working today" by Phaidon Press in "Take 100: The Future of Film."
Bio:
Ashim Ahluwalia studied film at Bard College, New York. His directorial debut, John & Jane (2005), premiered at the Toronto and Berlin Film Festivals in 2006. It was the first Indian film to be released theatrically by HBO Films. His second feature, Miss Lovely (2012), had its world premiere in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival. His third film, the true-life gangster epic Daddy (2017) opened on 2000 screens worldwide on Sept 8th, 2017.His short film Events in a Cloud Chamber (2016) made on Super 8 with famed Indian modernist painter Akbar Padamsee opened at the 73rd Venice Film Festival in the Classics section and has gone on to show at the BFI London Film Festival and at the Museum of Modern Art in New Directors/ New Films, amongst numerous others.His newest project, the anthology folk horror film, The Field Guide to Evil (2018), had a world premiere at South by Southwest (SXSW) on March 16th, 2018, after which it opened theatrically in the US (distributed by Neon) and on Netflix.In May 2013, he received the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters from Bard College, his alma mater. The award is "given in recognition of a significant contribution to artistic or literary heritage." In November 2013, he was selected to be on the Jury of the 8th edition of the Rome Film Festival for the CinemaXXI section.Ahluwalia is the only Indian director to have had his work premiere in the official selections of the Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto and SXSW festivals. Sight and Sound's Jonathan Romney has described Ahluwalia as "a very impressive talent".He was named "one of the ten best emerging film directors working today" by Phaidon Press in "Take 100: The Future of Film."
Tivia:
In 2005, the filmmaker formed an independent production company, Future East, providing an infrastructure to work outside mainstream film channels.He has a well-documented dislike of the Bollywood industry, in particular its reliance on the star system for project finance. He is a firm believer of the director's vision of the film over the studio or the star.The only Indian director to premiere films in official selections at Cannes, Venice, Berlinale, SXSW, New Directors/ New Films and the Toronto International Film Festival, Ahluwalia is part of a new generation of Indian directors that chooses to work outside of the confines of the mainstream film system.In the crime film Daddy (2017), he confounded expectations by casting small-time gangsters and non-actors with major established stars such as Arjun Rampal and Farhan Akhtar as well as regional actors from different film industries. This was a casting strategy that went against the grain of the Bollywood method of employing known "character" actors that are recognizable and repeat in films.His directorial debut was the feature-length documentary John & Jane (2005), which premiered at the Toronto and Berlin International Film Festival, and won him an Indian National Film Award. The film was the first ever Indian film to be distributed by HBO Films.He was selected to be on the Jury of the 8th edition of the Rome Film Festival, which was chaired by filmmaker Larry Clarke.In May 2013, he received the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters from Bard College, his alma mater. The award is "given in recognition of a significant contribution to artistic or literary heritage.".The actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui was cast in his first lead role in Ashim Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely (2012) when he was still an unknown face. Miss Lovely (2012) was shot in 2009.He was selected by the San Francisco Film Society as their Artist in Residence for 2013.Miss Lovely (2012) also featured the re-discovery of an anonymous Indian disco album Disco Jazz by Rupa Biswas when tracks appeared in the soundtrack of Miss Lovely. The album has now become a cult collectible revered by DJ's worldwide, prompting a Guardian article "From Bengal to boogie: Rupa Biswas, India's rediscovered disco diva".In the 2012 Sight & Sound poll of the greatest films of all time, Ahluwalia listed some of his favorite films as: Peter Kubelka's Unsere Afrikareise (1961), Masahiro Shinoda's Pale Flower (1964), Ritwik Ghatak's The Golden Thread (1965), Susumu Hani's Nanami: Inferno of First Love (1968), Satyajit Ray's The Adversary (1971), G. Aravindan's The Bogey-Man (1980) and Fassbinder's Veronica Voss (1982). |
| Name: |
Ashim Ahluwalia |
Type: |
Director,Producer,Additional Crew (IMDB) |
| Area: |
All World |
Platform: |
IMDB |
| Category: |
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Business scope: |
Director,Producer,Additional Crew |
| Products for sale: |
Director,Producer,Additional Crew |
| Last update: |
2024-07-02 04:24:48 |
| Biography: |
Ashim Ahluwalia studied film at Bard College, New York. His directorial debut, John & Jane (2005), premiered at the Toronto and Berlin Film Festivals in 2006. It was the first Indian film to be released theatrically by HBO Films. His second feature, |
| Trivia: |
In 2005, the filmmaker formed an independent production company, Future East, providing an infrastructure to work outside mainstream film channels.He has a well-documented dislike of the Bollywood industry, in particular its reliance on the star system for project finance. He is a firm believer of the director's vision of the film over the studio or the star.The only Indian director to premiere films in official selections at Cannes, Venice, Berlinale, SXSW, New Directors/ New Films and the Toronto International Film Festival, Ahluwalia is part of a new generation of Indian directors that chooses to work outside of the confines of the mainstream film system.In the crime film Daddy (2017), he confounded expectations by casting small-time gangsters and non-actors with major established stars such as Arjun Rampal and Farhan Akhtar as well as regional actors from different film industries. This was a casting strategy that went against the grain of the Bollywood method of employing known "character" actors that are recognizable and repeat in films.His directorial debut was the feature-length documentary John & Jane (2005), which premiered at the Toronto and Berlin International Film Festival, and won him an Indian National Film Award. The film was the first ever Indian film to be distributed by HBO Films.He was selected to be on the Jury of the 8th edition of the Rome Film Festival, which was chaired by filmmaker Larry Clarke.In May 2013, he received the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters from Bard College, his alma mater. The award is "given in recognition of a significant contribution to artistic or literary heritage.".The actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui was cast in his first lead role in Ashim Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely (2012) when he was still an unknown face. Miss Lovely (2012) was shot in 2009.He was selected by the San Francisco Film Society as their Artist in Residence for 2013.Miss Lovely (2012) also featured the re-discovery of an anonymous Indian disco album Disco Jazz by Rupa Biswas when tracks appeared in the soundtrack of Miss Lovely. The album has now become a cult collectible revered by DJ's worldwide, prompting a Guardian article "From Bengal to boogie: Rupa Biswas, India's rediscovered disco diva".In the 2012 Sight & Sound poll of the greatest films of all time, Ahluwalia listed some of his favorite films as: Peter Kubelka's Unsere Afrikareise (1961), Masahiro Shinoda's Pale Flower (1964), Ritwik Ghatak's The Golden Thread (1965), Susumu Hani's Nanami: Inferno of First Love (1968), Satyajit Ray's The Adversary (1971), G. Aravindan's The Bogey-Man (1980) and Fassbinder's Veronica Voss (1982). |
| Trademarks: |
A pivotal director of Mumbai cinema, he is noted for his atmospheric style, vivid cinematography and unique story structures that merge gritty realism with genre tropes.
Ahluwalia's provocative work has had a considerable influence on Indian filmmaking with his trademark personal vision and unconventional approach.
In India he is known for confounding audiences/ critics with non-linear narratives, as he adopts established genres and subverts them with experimental techniques.
He often works with archival materials and is credited with the re-discovery of lost works in his cinema. Examples include the rediscovery of lost experimental films in Events in a Cloud Chamber (2016) and forgotten softcore horror films in Miss Lovely (2012)..
He is a big advocate of shooting on celluloid, and was involved in the celluloid revival project with Christopher Nolan, Tacitha Dean, Kodak and India's Film Heritage Foundation entitled "Reframing the Future of Film." |
| Quotes: |
John u0026amp; Jane (2005) was technically a "documentary" because the characters in the film and their spaces were all real. And yet it feels like science fiction. Those are real call centre employees but they are kind of performing themselves. This hybrid mix of documentary and science fiction comes from certain formal choices, like shooting on 35mm rather than video, or having every shot be static and highly composed. That immediately breaks the feeling that it's a "documentary" and evokes an uncanny sensation; it makes you question what you're watching. Is this real? Is this all made up?
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[on Daddy (2017)] Most [biopics] tend to be propaganda. You can never really know somebody, even somebody close to you. It's just one version, but it's always presented as 'the only authentic version'. In Daddy, [Arun] Gawli's life is depicted through characters that knew him. Depending on who's telling the story, he's a hero, a violent gangster; sometimes frightening, sometimes frightened.
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[on Miss Lovely (2012)] We restored all the old films that we used in Miss Lovely (2012). The negatives were badly damaged - many were dug out of basements or back rooms. It became like an archaeology project, digging up an ancient civilization of sleaze.
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[on Miss Lovely (2012)] I think all the women in Miss Lovely (2012) - even though it is from the exploiter's point of view, the female characters are way beyond what the men are doing because they have a much more complex way of navigating the space, and they are navigating in a way that is far more sophisticated than these guys because they have to. The men are blundering and not very evolved, literally killing each other in the process...
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[(On Events in a Cloud Chamber (2016)] I've always liked the weirdness of ghost stories -haunted houses, sunken cities...things like that. So, yeah, on the one hand, we tried to remake this phantom of a film - Events in a Cloud Chamber (2016)) - and on another, my film became a way for me to understand what it means to be an artist as you age and near the end. |
| Job title: |
Director,Producer,Additional Crew |
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