Sandeep Marwah

Sandeep Marwah
Sandeep Marwah
Born	Sandeep Marwah (1960-03-01) March 1, 1960 Delhi, India
Ethnicity	Indian
Alma mater	Shaheed Bhagat Singh College
Occupation	Film Maker, Educator, Social Worker, Philanthropist, Studio Owner, Journalist
Spouse(s)	Reena Kapoor

"Sandeep Marwah" (born January 3, 1960) is a film, Television and Media personality.^[1] He is the founder of Noida Film City.^[2]

Early life and Education

Sandeep Marwah born on 3 January 1960 to Sheela Marwah and Suraj Parkash Marwah, a Delhi based business man migrated to Delhi in 1947 during partition. Sandeep has two brothers Deepak Marwah, Atul Marwah and a sister Poonam Relan.

He did his schooling from Sardar Patel Vidyalaya. Marwah joined Delhi University’s Shaheed Bhagat Singh College in the Commerce stream and graduated with honors. Marwah stood for the Delhi University elections in 1977 and was elected as Supreme Councilor along with Vijay Goel as President and Rajat Sharma as Secretary of the Delhi University.

While at university he was involved with a theatre group which included Nadira Babbar, Anupam Kher, Pankaj Kapoor, Raj Babbar, Vijay Kayshap, Dolly Kapoor as its member. This group conducted number of plays all over North India. Sandeep Marwah was an approved artist of Doordarshan and All India Radio. He performed many programs on the television channel Doordarshan and Radio Station and more than 100 shows on stage.

Marwah was briefly interested in politics and joined the Indian Youth Congress from 1980 to 1985 and rose up to the level of Incharge International Affairs under the guidance of Rajiv Gandhi. Marwah's initial interests were in being a police officer. He was selected as Special Police Officer and later as Honorary Battalion Commander in Delhi Home Guard selected by the then Lt. Governor Of Delhi. He rose up to the rank of District Commandant, a position he served as for eight years.

Career

In 1986, Marwah submitted a project of Film city to Noida Authority, an idea which was out right rejected by all the different authorities of Delhi Administration for lack of interest and space. Then the Chairman & CEO of Noida Yogesh Chandra accepted the project which was cleared by Late Chief Minister Veer Bahadur Singh of Uttar Pradesh Government in 1987 December. In 1988 allotments were made for Noida Film City.

In 1991, he established the Marwah Films And Video Studios, which became the first professional Studios of North India. Later in 1993 he expanded this to the Marwah Films and Video Productions. In 1993, Marwah also established the International Film and Television Club to promote films culture in North and to give value addition to education at AAFT. He functions as the director of the Asian Academy Of Film & Television.^[3] IFTC conducts many film related programs and started film festivals for the country including AAFT Festival of Short Digital Films [77th Edition], ASMS Festival of Short Films [10th Edition], International Festival of Cellphone Cinema [6th Edition], WECARE Film Festival [10th Edition], ASC Festival of Films [2nd Edition], International Sufi Film Festival [3rd Edition] and Global Film Festival [6th Edition].^[4] Alongside the IFTC Marwah also started the International Film and Television Research Centre.

In 1993, he founded and established the first private film school of the country under the name and banner of Asian Academy Of Film & Television. In 2003, the government university University of Media Arts was created. The university was funded by the government and Marwah acted as Vice Chancellor of the university. The university provided both undergraduate and graduate degrees. However, after three years the university had to shut down because the government could no longer afford to fund it. After the shutdown of the university, Marwah helped in founding a new college, the Asian School of Media Studies.^[5] This college became the first one to grant a film degree in the country. Marwah also wanted to open a business school, the Asian Business School. Seeing the success of ASMS, the government permitted Marwah to open a college that could grant AIECT Diploma and Masters in Business Administration. Marwah also started the International Children's Film Forum and the International Public Broadcasting Forum. Under the banner of the ICFF Marwah also founded Apna School, Apni Library and Apni Silai Ghar (a technical school) for underprivileged children.^[6]

In April 2015, Marwah founded the Asian Premier League. The APL is a mixed-sports event and in the first ever APL in 2015 over 400 students participated.^[7]

Awards

According to the Government of India a world record was achieved during the 19th Commonwealth Games Delhi when the Marwah Team walked with the Queen’s Baton and covered 1000 hours of filming, 10,000 pictures, 102 short films of 2 minutes for daily international telecast, 102 radio programs by covering 28 states, 7 union territories, 20,000 km, 300 events, 900 cities in 102 days.^[8]

In 2015, Marwah received an award by the Tibetan Prime Minister, Dr. Lobsang Sangay, for his "contribution to the World Peace, Universal Brotherhood, Media and his enduring support for the Global Cooperative Movement".^[9]

Personal life

Sandeep is married to Reena Kapoor, a fashion designer. Reena is the daughter of Indian film producer. Surinder Kapoor. With her he has two sons Mohit and Akshay. Sandeep’s eldest son Mohit Marwah^[10] is an upcoming actor and younger one Akshay Marwah is the CEO of Marwah Studios.^[11]

His brother-in-laws are actors Boney Kapoor, Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Kapoor. His nephew and nieces through his wife are Arjun Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor and Rhea Kapoor.^[12]

References