Pan Nalin

Pan Nalin Biography

Pan Nalin is an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary maker known for the movies, Samsara, Valley of Flowers, and Ayurveda: Art of Being. Samsara was his debut movie. It won international awards like "Grand Jury Prize - Special Mention" at AFI Fest and "Most Popular Feature Film" at Melbourne International Film Festival in 2002. His upcoming project is Buddha: The Inner Warrior, a biopic of Siddhartha Gautama. He hails from Gujarat and his real name is Nalin Kumar Pandya. He now resides both in India as well as France.

Nalin was born as Nalin Kumar Pandya, in a small town in Gujarat. His father owns a tea stall at Khijadiya railway station. He was not interested in studies. He was interested in paintings and drawings while a child. After completing graduation at Fine Arts at the M. S. University of Baroda, he learnt Design at the National Institute of Design. He made four animation films and twenty short silent films before moving to Mumbai. Once he reached Mumbai, he started his career as production runner. Later directors realized the hidden talents of this youngster and gave him opportunity to direct commercials and corporate films. Samsara released in 2001 was his real breakthrough, which not only helped him to garnish critics’ appreciation, but also gave him many international awards like "Grand Jury Prize - Special Mention" at AFI Fest and "Most Popular Feature Film" at Melbourne International Film Festival in 2002.    

Nalin experimented with the short films and made documentaries with BBC, Discovery channel and several international networks. His documentary, Ayurveda: Art Of Being was a huge success worldwide. It ran for more than one year in Spain and three year in France. Nalin’s feature film Valley of Flowers was presold to 35 countries and was a major hit. His script of Slightly Sane won the CJ Entertainment’s Award for The Best International Project at Pusan International Film Festival.

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Updated: March 14, 2014