Sameer Kohli

Sameer Kohli is an Indian film writer and a Television Commercials Director & Producer. Born in Delhi, he dreamed of becoming a physicist, either in quantum mechanics or in space sciences. But instead became an engineer, graduating from IIT Delhi. A 3-year stint in a techno-managerial position preceded an accident that eventually led him into the media world. He began his new career-life working with Mumbai-based Romesh Films (creators of some of the celebrated Indian movies and Television serials) handling TV shows and turning around a company-owned shooting floor in north India. He is also known as one of the co-founders, in 1999, of Red Ice Films, currently one of the top and multi-awarded production companies in India specializing in television commercials. Between 2001 and 2006, he wrote 3 full length Hindi features on which he was also an associate director. Yahaan got him a Screen Awards nomination in the writing category. Independent direction of TV commercials began in 2006. A stalled venture that included shooting a teaser video for a multi-country full length Hindi feature that he wrote and proposed to direct in 2008 did not dampen his spirits as he switched to creating more scripts for later deployment and turning a Producer for Indo-foreign-collaborative TV commercials in 2010, mounting projects with international directors, cinematographers, line production companies, post studios and shooting in various parts of the globe. Additionally, he has contributed humour pieces for an English quarterly print magazine for several years, besides co-authoring a book Dark & Darker, a compilation of short stories and poetry on the dark side of human behavior. Strong on both strategy as well as creative conceptualization, he has till date directed over 40 commercials, produced over 200, scripted 4 released feature films, written and produced an award winning short film on women safety in India, besides being a panelist at one of the international Pan-IIT global meet. He is currently based in Mumbai, writing a full-length feature, a web-series, and consulting with a US-Asia media group on creative strategy for an International cross-media campaign. Twitter: clexkay