Independent filmmaker Sandeep Mohan's Nirmal Anand Ki Puppy releases today

Mona

‘Independent’ and ‘lonely’ are the words that filmmaker Sandeep Mohan uses to describe his journey into filmmaking. Sandeep, who has four feature films to his credit, is coming to Chandigarh with his fifth film, Nirmal Anand Ki Puppy, to celebrate his 47th birthday on September 17. Aiming at making sensible yet engaging cinema, his approach is also unique. For Love, Wrinkle-free and Shreelancer, he had theatrical releases under PVR Directors Rare. He travelled with Hola Venky to 92 cities in India, the US and Singapore calling this journey The Great Indian Travelling Cinema.

For Nirmal Anand Ki Puppy, he has arranged for single show screenings in Chandigarh, New Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru and few more cities. While he plays different roles in his projects, including that of the writer, for his latest, he is sharing writing credits with his pet dog Hermione.

“I was forced by my daughter to get a pet and how it changed the family dynamics has become the starting point for Nirmal Anand Ki Puppy. The story revolves around a husband and wife with their daughter and a pet. The film has Karanveer Khullar, an actor from Chandigarh, in the lead role.

Originally from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, Sandeep’s first stint in cinema was as an assistant director to Sanjay Leela Bhansali in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. He went to Bengaluru to work in the advertising world as a copywriter before the desire to be ‘independent’ made him move back to Mumbai.

As most of his works are crowd funded, he’s had great hopes from the OTT. “Sadly, it has negatively impacted independent filmmakers. OTT is mostly spending on star-led or big-budget films. Filmmakers like us are only getting a raw deal.”

But then, he’s the one to look at the positive side of things. So, as commercial films have played hide and seek with cinemas, he’s using them for Nirmal Anand Ki Puppy. Sandeep has recently wrapped up shooting another film that stars National Film Award recipient Anjali Patil, popularly known for her roles in movies like Newton and Kaala.

Sandeep, who finds inspiration in the works of Woody Allen and Alexander Payne, says, “I love how the message is bigger than the messenger with Allen, and how Payne can infuse optimism even into dark stories.”

When it comes to actors, he is all for Owen Wilson and Bill Muray. “I am not a big fan of superstars, Wilson and Murray are not even conventionally good looking but how they pull off different characters is just superb.” Among Indian actors, Sandeep loves Rajkummar Rao and Pankaj Tripathi.

Taking the middle path, not art cinema nor commercial, Sandeep is happy charting his own path, hoping to tell stories with heart in the right place!