Prashant Nair | |
|---|---|
 Nair at theSundance Film Festival in January 2015 | |
| Born | |
| Occupation | Film director & screenwriter |
| Years active | 2011-present |
Prashant Nair is an Indian film director, screenwriter andproducer best known for his 2015 feature filmUmrika, starringSuraj Sharma andTony Revolori, which premiered at the2015 Sundance Film Festival and won theWorld Cinema Dramatic Audience Award.[1] His latest feature,Tryst With Destiny, premiered at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival where it won the Best Screenplay in an International Narrative award.
Nair was born inChandigarh, India to diplomat parents but was raised in Europe, Africa and Asia before going on to live and work in New York, Paris, Prague, Berlin and Mumbai. He credits his constant moving and exposure to different parts of the world as the biggest impact on the subjects of his films.[2] As a result of his upbringing, Nair is fluent in English, French and Hindi and has studied Italian, German and Arabic.
He initially worked as a social media entrepreneur well until late 2010 when he first transitioned towards a career in film.[3] His first full-length film was the micro-budgetDelhi In A Day which Nair has said he made as "a sort of film school." The film went on to have a limited theatrical release in India in 2012 and was well received by critics, voted one of the top ten independent films of the year by Times of India.[citation needed]
His 2015 film,Umrika became the first Indian feature to win a top award at the Sundance Film Festival, taking home theWorld Cinema Dramatic Audience Award. Its European premiere took place at the 2015 Karlovy Vary Film Festival following which the film went on to play at over forty international film festivals, picking up numerous accolades including theHP Bridging the Borders Award at the 2016 Palm Springs International Film Festival and theFIPRESCI Critic's prize at the Cairo International Film Festival 2015.
Shortly after its premiere, theatrical rights of the film were sold by sales agent Beta Cinema to France, Germany, Austria, Australia, South Korea and numerous other territories, making it one of the more widely distributed Indian independent films in recent times.[4]
Nair has said that the film is "about the mythology of America and, more generally, how cultures perceive each other: the stereotypes, assumptions, misunderstandings and labeling as “exotic” of all things unfamiliar".[5]
In 2018, Nair directed two episodes of the Amazon Prime TV seriesMade In Heaven.
Tryst With Destiny, a co-production between Drishyam Films and Backup Media, won the Best Screenplay in an International Narrative award at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival where it screened for a jury that includedDemián Bichir,Danny Boyle,Judith Godrèche,Sabine Hoffman andWilliam Hurt.
Nair showran, co-created, co-directed 2023'sTrial By Fire, a Netflix Original Series based on the book by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, the couple who lost their children in theuphaar cinema fire. The series chronicles the event and their subsequent battle for justice.[6] It was nominated for five Filmfare awards, winning Best Actress and Best Series Critic's Choice. The series currently holds a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating.
| Year | Film | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Delhi In A Day | Debut |
| 2015 | Umrika | wonWorld Cinema Dramatic Audience Award at2015 Sundance Film Festival |
| 2019 | Made in Heaven | 2 episodes only; Best Director, Indian Television Academy Awards 2019 |
| 2020 | Tryst With Destiny | Best Screenplay In An International Narrative, Tribeca Film Festival 2020 |
| 2023 | Trial By Fire | TV series onNetflix, Filmfare Best Series Critic's Choice 2023 |
https://robbreport.com.my/2018/01/20/prashant-nair-film-director/