Uday Shankar Pani

Uday Shankar Pani is a painter, cartoonist, writer, sculptor, actor, Professor, successful coordinator, director and producer of films. His production houses - U.S Productions and S.P. Communications have produced and directed scores of short & feature films during the last three decades. Known for his technical excellence, Uday is a perfectionist and comfortable with any kind of film making. A film maker - who is equally Passionate about Direction & Production - making him one of the most sought after production designer / coordinator / line producer for foreign productions. In the famous 'White Book" published in U.K about working conditions in overseas countries, Andrews Bunchanan P.M of BBC Bristol described Uday as very knowledgeable about technical staff in India and can put together a good local crew. "To Uday, managing production is as simple, satisfying and enjoyable as solving a crossword puzzle". Having an establishment in India's commercial Capital Mumbai - Uday's Network Global contacts all motivated him to venture into distribution of audio-visual programs under the banner of S.P.Communications. Directing ads & documentation for RAS & Durga Khote Productions gave him a sound footing into the world of short films. A major breakthrough came his way when he became an assistant director in his first foreign production, Krishna Shah's 'Shalimar' where he earned the reputation of being the best A/D in India to handle crowds. This reputation got him into Richard Attenborough's film "Gandhi" as the first assistant director. Gandhi was a great experience for him which earned him accolades for controlling famous crowd scenes of 'Jallianwala Baug', 'Refugee Columns' & 'Salt March'. Indian Express, in their article titled 'The filming of Gandhi' on Jan 30, 1981 wrote 'Some of the columns spread across five kilometers and it was an entirely Indian operation under Uday Shankar Pani, the first assistant director of the 2nd unit and Govind Nihalani'. And then came BBC Nature History Units 'Jim Corbett' & 'Fella by the name'...' Fish In Sky' & other foreign productions. with the much acclaimed video Feature for Nari Hira's 'Hiba Films' and his commercial blockbuster in Bengali, Nepali, Mythological films for Gulshan Kumar, proved his faith in the fact that film making is 'The King Of All Professions!'. Co-producing a German Feature film, with Lisa Films and Bollywood Movies Titled "The Hotel of Dreams - India" has been one of his latest achievements. Also for the last couple of years, he has been a visiting faculty to major film schools in India like FTII, Indra Institude - Whistling Woods International & Zee Institude of Media Arts. During the last couple of years, Uday has been active in various film festivals as jury, selection committee, coordinator of workshops & secretary - International jury.