Media Release

Mangaluru, May 10: Out of many celebrities from the coastal Karnataka in the Indian film industry, Mangalorean Sandeep Malani is one of the best filmmakers. He has now successfully completed 25 years of his career in films having worked as an actor, assistant director, associate, writer, producer and director. In these years he has worked in Tulu, Konkani, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Hindi, Sindhi, Punjabi, Gujarathi and Japanese film too.

Malani had joined the film industry in 1991, when he started his career in Bombay as an assistant to cameraman Jaggi Gupta, during which he had the opportunity to work for some ad films, magazine shoots and also two episodes of a serial in Doordarshan that led him connect with filmmaker Lawrence Dsouza for whom he worked for a short period as an unit assistant. Back to his native Mangaluru, Malani acted in a Tulu film ‘Bangar Patler’ and then continued with September 8, after which he was seen as one of the leads in the Konkani film ‘Bogsanhe’. This all happened during the period 1991-92.

Being an actor in Mangaluru featuring in Konkani and Tulu films during the period of 1993 to 1996, he had also done several successful shows in Town Hall namely film dance competitions, valentine contests, Hindi play and award shows for dancers namely Chitrahaar, Flop Show and the biggest dance event 1995 - A Dance Story. He then moved to Kannada films with Z, Aryabhata, Idhu Yentha Premavayya, Masala, Jootata, Julie, C/o Footpath, and Tirupathi to name a few.

It was then he got a chance to co-direct the Kannada version of the trilingual film (also made in Tamil and Telugu) titled ‘One Two Three’ with Prabhu Deva and his brothers. The film was directed by K Subaash, to whom Malani was an associate and penned scripts with him. One such film was the super hit ‘Chennai Express’. Malani was also the associate director for the Kannada film ‘Manasella Neene’.

Malani then co- directed ‘Miss California’ with Diganth and Janu and then independently directed the first Kanglish film, repeating the same cast in ‘SMS 6260’. The film was first-of-its-kind with several other languages incorporated in it. With SMS 6260, Malani introduced a whole lot of newcomers – artists and technicians to the film industry. He repeated the same trend, working with newcomers in his Hindi film ‘Woh 5 Din’ and ‘Janleva 555’. From doing commercial films to some short films like Moments, Shaayad, Hum Tum Aur Loan, he turned to do some meaningful films that got him noticed in the different category of films. His films on social awareness, HIV Aids issue, ‘Jo Jo Laali’ won him 17 awards and on women empowerment ‘Sulige Sikkidaaga’ got him awards, festival entries and international recognition too.

Malani started his own production company titled Malani Talkies and to start with, he made a musical on his family titled ‘Malaniya’, celebrating 75 years of his dad Ramesh Malani, who was a film distributor and had connections with the industry. Malani, then made musical documentaries – Yashraj Heroines De Jayenge and a wonderful tribute to his all time favorite in 3 languages titled Roop Ki Rani, Senthoora Poove, Athiloka Sundari – Sridevi. He also gave a humble tribute to the 100 years of Indian cinema and had it showcased in Mangalore, Bombay and in Sydney, Australia.

Malani has also released and promoted several films with Malani Talkies production namely Beyond, Mumbai Connection, Tum Ho Yaara and Pritipal Singh.

And now, on his verge of completion of 25 years in the film industry, Malani is ready with his new film series titled ‘MAA – Yeh Cinemaa Hai’, that has 100 plus stars and has entirely been shot on an iPhone camera. The film deals with mother sentiment, woman empowerment and wholesome entertainment.

From actor to director and fully being behind the screens of lately, Malani has got back to acting playing major roles in two Kannada films, Mooka Vismitha and Darpana, and also he will be seen in Hindi films Elena, Filmi Raasleela and Divorced Happily.

Malani has a bigger plan for Mangaloreans. He has plans of making a multilingual film with Kannada, Konkani, Tulu and Byaari languages and will start the shoot from July this year.