| Kranti Kanade | |
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Film Director - Screenwriter |
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| Born | 6 February 1979 Pune, India |
| Occupation | Director, Screenwriter |
| Years active | 2002–present |
Kranti Kanade is an award-winning Film Director and Screenwriter born in Pune, India. He studied filmmaking at FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) and UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles).
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Kranti is currently doing the post production of his next feature film "Gandhi Of The Month" starring American actor Harvey Keitel and Ayush Mahesh Khedekar (Slumdog Millionaire) in the lead. It is about a secular expatriate American schoolmaster in India struggling against anti-Gandhian forces. The screenplay won the IFFLA Film Fund Grant instituted by the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles[1]. The grant jury included screenwriters Gill Dennis (Walk The Line), Anurag Kashyap (Dev D, Black Friday) and Sooni Taraporevala (Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala, The Namesake). The first draft of this screenplay was mentored by Oscar winner Danis Tanovic (No Man's Land), screenwriters Bernd Lichtenberg (Good Bye Lenin!), Olivia Hetreed (Girl with a Pearl Earring) and Anjum Rajabali (Rajneeti).
His first feature film 'Mahek', 2007, was a personal film about the self discovery of a 11-yr old girl who dreams of becoming the very best in everything, but is unsure of where her real talent lies. To complicate things further, an old, magic-less Modern Fairy walks into her life. Will Mahek ever realize her true strength? The film premiered at the London Film Festival to affectionate reviews. British Film Institute called it an “Inspiring Family Film,” Writer Rachel Dwyer said it's “Totally delightful,” Cleveland and St Louis Festival called it a “Gem of a film” and Sprockets Toronto Festival said it has “Heart & humor”. It was invited to many festivals around the world and won awards in Hollywood and Houston[2]. It was Best Children's Film Nominee at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Australia. It is included in the University syllabus at the Otterbein College, US as part of their India studies curriculum. It is also shown as part of studies in schools of Canada.
'Chaitra', his thesis film, is based on a story of the same name by the legendary Marathi author G. A. Kulkarni. It is about a proud woman who poetically vindicates her unfair social insult, but cannot escape her inevitable destiny. It won several National Film Awards including Best Short Film, Best Music for Short Film (Pt Bhaskar Chandavarkar) and Jury Award for Acting (Sonali Kulkarni). It was India's official entry to the Student Academy Awards.
Kranti is a co-founder of an NGO that works for the destitute children. So far it has rehabilitated 218 children.
Gandhi Of The Month (2012) (formerly called Against Itself) Awarded IFFLA Film Fund by Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles