Pan Nalin

Pan Nalin is an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary maker. Nalin is best known for directing award-winning films like Samsara, Valley of Flowers, and Ayurveda: Art of Being. His debut film, Samsara went on to win awards like "Grand Jury Prize – Special Mention" at AFI Fest and "Most Popular Feature Film" at Melbourne International Film Festival in 2002. His next film will be Buddha: The Inner Warrior, a biographical film of Siddhartha Gautama.

Nalin was born as Nalin Kumar Pandya, in a small town in Gujarat, India. His father owns a tea stall at Khijadiya railway station near Amreli. He lives in India and France.

Pan Nalin studied Fine Arts at the M. S. University of Baroda and went on to learn Design at the National Institute of Design. He made four animation films and twenty short silent films before moving to Mumbai where he worked as production runner until directors realised his potential and started to give him opportunities to direct commercials and corporate films.

Pan Nalin, came into global limelight with his debut feature Samsara (2001).

As a child, Nalin disliked schools; instead he used to paint and draw. He also staged mythological dramas and folk plays.

He saw his first movie at age nine. As a teenager, he left his village in pursuit of cinema. After studies in Fine Arts at the M.S. University of Baroda, Nalin went to learn Design at the NID (National Institute of Design).

He travelled widely in India and finally moved to Mumbai (Bombay) where he worked as production runner. Producers recognised Nalin's talent and offered him a chance to direct commercials and corporate films.

Nalin lived in the US and UK for a short period and then set out for six-month-long nomadic existence in Europe. On returning to India, he roamed the Himalayas.

Nalin experimented with the short fiction film forms and made documentaries with BBC, Discovery, Canal Plus and other international networks. His multiple award winning feature documentary Ayurveda: Art Of Being was theatrically released worldwide with major success. Ayurveda celebrated a yearlong theatrical run in Spain and record-breaking three-year-long run in France. The film met with similar success in US, Canada, Germany, Holland…

His first feature film Samsara was a success worldwide and won him some thirty plus international awards. Many critics and spectators considered Samsara a groundbreaking film. Miramax/Disney has acquired the film for the US.

Nalin's feature film Valley of Flowers was presold to 35 countries and is considered a major underground hit. It continues to enjoy theatrical release with critical and commercial success worldwide. The film was filmed in remote, high altitude Himalayas and in Japan. It won Best Picture at IFFLA Los Angeles, and won four nominations at IAAC New York, including The Best Picture and The Best Director.

Nalin's tragicomedy script Slightly Sane won the CJ Entertainment's Award for The Best International Project at Pusan International Film Festival, South Korea. Nalin is also working on English language pictures, the line-up includes a film on life of Buddha, an action-adventure epic The First Warrior and supernatural thriller titled H2O.

For the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009, United Nation's project Visual Telegrams invited 30 popular filmmakers from 30 countries to make a short film on our environment. Pan Nalin is among the invitees and only Indian to join leagues of well known directors like Stephen Frears, Paul Haggis, and Emir Kusturica.

In 2006 Pan Nalin was awarded Spain's award Vida Sana for his contribution to ecology. Also in 2007, TMG (David Flint's Triangle Media Group UK) awarded Pan Nalin as one of the Top 50 Achievers in Global Mainstream Media in the field of film, theatre and drama.

Pan Nalin has served as jury member at international film festivals along with celebrities like; Roman Polanski, Maria de Medeiros, Jamel Debbouze, Ludivine Sagnier, David Wenham, Paz Vega, Sandrine Bonnaire and Teddy Chan.

Pan Nalin is probably the only Indian screenwriter to be twice invited to a Screenwriter's lab Equinoxe along with top Hollywood screenwriters like; Ron Bass, David and Janet Peoples, James V. Hart and Shane Black among others. Legendary Diva of French Cinema Jeanne Moreau headed the writer's lab. Pan Nalin's latest tragicomedy screenplay Slightly Sane won the CJ Entertainment's Award for the Best International Project at Pusan 2009.

Pan Nalin has been invited to be on panels at literature, arts or media conclaves. At the Jaipur Literature Festival Nalin was invited for " Art of Adaptation for Screen " conclave with Oscar winner Christopher Hampton. Nalin was also invited, along with the delegation headed by Mr. Amitabh Bachchan; to be on the panel for France-India Coproduction forum at Salon du Cinema in Paris.

• 1991 The Khajuraho (short)
• 1993 The Tulkus
• 1994 The Nagas (documentary)
• 1995 The Doubt (short)
• 1996 Kaal
• 1997 The Devadasi (documentary)
• 1997 Eiffel Tower Trilogy: Height, Weight & Gravity (short)
• 1999 Amazing World India (documentary)
• 2001 Samsara
• 2001 Ayurveda: Art of Being (documentary)
• 2006 Valley of Flowers
• 2009 Echo of Eco (short)
• 2013 Faith Connections (documentary)
• 2015 Angry Indian Goddesses
• 2016 Buddha: The Inner Warrior

• Kehr, Dave (17 July 2002). "FILM REVIEW; Rapt Look at a Holistic Medical Art From India". New York Times.