Vekeana Dhillon

Vekeana Dhillon is a screenwriter, television presenter and actress.

Early life and education

She was born in New Delhi, India on July 13, 1970, but two years later her family migrated to Toronto, Canada. She grew up in Alberta, Canada and went on to graduate with a Bachelor of Science from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

Career

Vekeana Dhillon‘s screenplay Foot It,^[1][2][3] a family/dance feature film, is in development with Corus Entertainment / Rugged Media and a horror feature film titled Crashed for Telefilm Canada.

She has had four feature films produced and released internationally among them being I - Proud To Be An Indian^[4][5] (2004) Produced by Sohail Khan and Directed by Puneet Sira, Jai Veeru^[6][7] (2009) Produced by Siddi Vinayak Movies, and Kisaan^[8][9][10] (2009) again Produced by Sohail Khan and Directed by Puneet Sira, and Pinky Moge Wali (2012) directed by Vikram Dhillon. Dhillon as several scripts under production included among them Ji Karda (Eyeline Entertainment), Kurbani^[11][12][13] (FK International) and Hoshiyar Havaldar^[14] (Mirchi Movies)

Dhillons association with the entertainment industry was initially as an actor. Snip^[15][16] (2000) was her first feature film in which she played the tenacious gossip driven Delnaz Readymoney, followed by shorts for MTV in leading roles in Love Ke Liye and One Tight Slap^[17] which led to Bollywood Bound,^{[18][19][20][21]} a Canadian National Film Board documentary-feature following the lives of Vekeana Dhillon, Vikram Dhillon, Neeru Bajwa and Ruby Bhatia as transplanted Canadians in the world of Bollywood. Vekeana was hired by Rupert Murdoch’s Channel V where she became the face and personality of several shows that she hosted including the channel’s prime-time slotted [V] Dares U^[22] with co-host Yudi Urs and [V] Challenge^[23][24] with brother Vikram Dhillon.

Vekeana parleyed her Bollywood experiences as a contributor and reporter for the BBC Asian Network where she did a two year stint with her own weekly half-hour slot on the Nikki Bedi Show,^[25] in addition to reporting for regional BBC stations in the UK. Vekeana shared her voice and news with the BBC World Service and BBC General News Service.

Personal life

She is the daughter of Lyricist Harcharan Dhillon and retired Environmental Health Officer Dyal Singh Dhillon. She’s worked extensively with her producer/director brother, Vikram Dhillon, and currently lives in Vancouver, BC with her husband, noted director/producer Puneet Sira whom she married in 2010.

Filmography – Writer

Presenter

• Nikki Bedi Show – BBC Asian Network (Radio)
• [V] Dares U – Channel V (Television)
• [V] Challenge – Channel V (Television)
• Style Police – Channel V (Television)
• Tea With [V] – Channel V (Television)
• Live [V]ideo Request – Channel V (Television)
• BPL Oye – Channel V Television
• Red Alert – Channel V Hong Kong (Television)
• MTV By Demand – MTV India (Television)

Actor

• Bollywood Bound – (Herself) Feature Film – Canadian National Film Board. Dir Nisha Pajuha
• Mogaveera^[26][27] – (Narrator) Short Film – Visualeyes. Dir Vikram Dhillon
• One Tight Slap – (Starlet) Television – MTV. Dir Cyrus Oshidhar
• Love Ke Liya – (Beloved Woman) Television – MTV. Dir Cyrus Oshidhar
• Snip – (Delnawaz Moneyready) Feature Film – Mercury Films. Dir Sunil Sippy
• Tata Coffee (Lead Talent) Commercial – Far Productions. Dir Kailash Sundernath
• Pepsi Cola (Lead Talent) Commercial – Genesis Film Production Pvt. Ltd. Dir Prahlad Kakkar
• Holy River^[28] (Maya) Theatre – Work In Progress Productions. Dir Etienne Coutinho
• Vasvadata^[29][30] (Vasvadata) Theatre – The Creators. Janak Thoprani

See also

• Women's Cinema

References

External links

• Vekeana Dhillon at the Internet Movie Database