User:Vivek B Agrawal
Vivek Agrawal, is the multi award winning producer of the English feature film ‘Land Gold Women’ (2011). The film is the world’s first English language feature to explore the issue of honour killing. The film was released in India in conjunction with the Movement to End Honor Violence. The film and the movement was produced by A Richer Lens. A Richer Lens is Vivek and Avantika Hari Agrawal’s company and Vivek serves as it’s CEO. A Richer Lens operates with offices in Mumbai, Dubai and London.
Born and educated in South Mumbai, Vivek has a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance Management dropped out of a Masters in Banking and Finance to pursue his passion of film-making. He started working in an ad-film production house while in the 2nd year of his Bachelor’s degree.
He have been associated with the Indian Film Industry for over seventeen years in various capacities – Director, Producer, Writer, Executive Producer, 1st AD, Associate Director, Line Producer, Casting Director, Visual Effects Director, Post Production Supervisor, Production Manager and has specialized in various avenues. During this period, Vivek has worked on over 300 commercials and over 25 feature films in various capacities with some of the biggest banners and productions houses in India.
Over the years he has built a reputation of being the producer to go to when a project is in difficulty or is an impossible task to achieve. With his technical background and finance education he is the perfect blend for investors to go to when trying to make the impossible film. He has successfully produced the smallest of films to the biggest ones with equal ease and thrives on making virtual teams for each project. His expertise lies in bringing together new teams together for every project according to the budget and scale of the film and producing them comfortably in any part of the world.
He started his career in 1994 with Flicks Motion Picture Company, which was one of India’s leading Ad-Film Production houses. Over the next three years he worked on over 200 commercials in various capacities in production and direction. In this period he worked with all the leading Ad-Agencies and Corporate houses of India and worked on producing some of the biggest commercials of those times. During this tenure of three years with Flicks he also worked on a few music videos and a 90 minute docu-drama, ‘Mamuliram’ (The Ordinary Man), based on the history of Amul and the mad behind the brand Dr Verghese Kurien, as a 2nd AD. These projects were all done under Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (Director of Rang De Basanti).
Thereafter, he joined hands with his mentor, Ashok Mehta, India’s leading Director of Photography (Bandit Queen, 36 Chowringhee Lane, Making of Mahatma, Ram Lakhan, Khalnayak, Gupt, etc) and started producing Ad-Films under his company Ashok Mehta Visuals Pvt Ltd. They produced over 100 commercials over the next 6 years and also produced the film Moksha – The Salvation, directed by Ashok Mehta, under his banner. Vivek worked as the Associate Director and Executive Producer on the film. The Film went on to win 2 Indian National Awards apart from other popular awards in 2001.
Thereafter, Vivek worked under various capacities as Visual Effects Director, Post Production Supervisor and Line Producer on numerous feature films like Gaja Gamini, Aakhen, Chalte Chalte, Mehbooba, Dr Ambedkar and Humse Kissi Se Kam Nahin and others (uncredited).
From August 2003 for a year and a half, I worked on the bilingual film, Kisna – The Warrior Poet, produced by Mukta Arts, and directed by Subhash Ghai (One of India’s most successful and popular Director’s) as the Associate Director and Visual Effects Director. He also spent 6 months in London and L.A. casting for the International cast of the film. The film was shot in English and Hindi and had a leading star-cast from India and UK.
During this period, Vivek set up Rang de Basanti as the Executive Producer (uncredited), a film later produced by UTV, and directed by Rakeysh Mehra starring Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor, Soha Ali Khan.
As the Indian casting director, Vivek then casted the Indian parts of the International British Television Series/Drama, Sharpe Challenges starring Sean Bean, along with renowned British casting director John Hubbard. It has being directed by veteran English director Tom Clegg and is produced by Malcolm Craddock. The British Casting Director of Sharpe is John Hubbard (Elizabeth, Four Feathers, Da Vinci Code).
Vivek then Line Produced ‘Meridian’ a film being produced by Angad Paul of A.V Pictures, UK. The entire film was shot on a massive set put up in Mumbai in November/December/January 2005/6. The crew was entirely from India and starred: Arjun Rampal, Abhay Deol, Irfan Khan, Raima Sen, Kunal Kapoor and others.
Vivek finally directed his Maiden Directorial Venture – ‘I SEE YOU’ in 2006, a Bollywood film produced by Arjun Rampal under the banner of Chasing Ganesha Films, shot in London and India. The music of the film was one of the biggest chartbusters of the year.
‘I See You’ was shot over a 6 week schedule, with 5 weeks in London and 1 week in Mumbai. The film started pre-production in June 2006 and was released in December 2006. A virtual team of technicians and assistants from Mumbai and London worked together for a period of 7 months. The film was made on a budget for INR 4 Crores 25 Lakhs (USD 900,000). The music album of ‘I See You’ was one of the largest selling albums in 2006.
In 2007, Vivek set up the production of two feature films being directed by first time directors, namely ‘Lucky Red Seeds’ – director Anjali Menon for NFDC, (National Film Development Corporation) India and ‘7 Days in Slow Motion’ director Umakant Thumrogoti. (Both films uncredited)
Later in 2007, Vivek co-produced the feature film ‘Victory’ along with Ajitpal Mangat starring Harman Baweja, Amrita Rao, Anupam Kher, Gulshan Grover and others, being directed by Ajitpal. The film was the first authentic cricket based film. It also stared Brett Lee, Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchirst, Michael Clarke (from Australia), James Anderson, Simon Jones, Saj Mahmood (from England), Daniel Vettori, Shane Bond, Nathan Astle (from New Zealand), M Muralitharan, C Vaas, M Malinga (from Sri Lanka), M Gul, S Afridi, S Akhtar (from Pakistan) and Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Dinesh Karthik, Praveen Kumar (from India) The film was shot in Australia, South Africa, Dubai, Sri Lanka and India. In Australia, Vivek managed to pull off a shoot at the MCC ground on Boxing day with a live audience of 100,000 spectators.
In 2008, Vivek met Avantika Hari and started work on ‘Land Gold Women’. The film was shot over 24 days in Birmingham on Super 35. Casting took place over a 3-month period over which over 500 actors auditioned for the 9 main parts.
Land Gold Women has won the following awards: 1. India’s National Award 2010 for Best Feature Film in English 2. The Foreign Correspondent Association’s Purple Orchid Award for Best Film 3. Best Script/Screenplay (Avantika Hari) Award at the Asian Festival of First Films in 2009 4. The Royal Reel Award for Excellence in Filmmaking at the Canada International Film Festival 2010 5. The Best of Show Award at The Indie Fest, USA 6. The Best Film (Runner Up) ReelHeart International Film Festival held in Toronto 7. The Best Actor (Narinder Samra) ReelHeart International Film Festival held in Toronto 8. The Best Cinematography (David Rom) ReelHeart International Film Festival held in Toronto 9. World Accolade Competition Humanitarian Award for Excellence in Film Making 2011
After premiering in the Indian Panorama section of the International Film Festival of Goa in 2009, which screens 26 of the best films made by Indians in any given year, the film has received numerous nominations in various categories at International film festivals. The soundtrack of the film was nominated for an award at the East End Film Festival in 2010. The film also received a nomination for Best UK Feature for Avantika at the Festival.
Vivek and Avantika got married in 2009 after successfully making ‘Land Gold Women.’ They had their first child, a baby boy called Dev, in February 2012.
In 2010, Vivek was called upon to head the production of the multi-million dollar film – ‘Mausam’ (Seasons) being directed by the award winning veteran actor Pankuj Kapur, starring Bollywood superstars Shahid Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor. Mausam was one of the biggest productions in Bollywood in 2010/2011. The Vistaar Religare Fund and Eros International produced Mausam. The film was shot in Scotland, Switzerland and India (Punjab, Gwalior, Mumbai).
In 2011, Vivek took up the challenge of producing – ‘London Paris New York’, a bollywood film being presented by Fox Star India (the Indian arm of 20th Century Fox) under the banner of Rose Movies. The challenge was to produce a film to be shot in three countries on a shoestring budget and virtual teams. The film is directed by yet another first time director Anu Menon and stars Ali Zafar and Aditi Rao. The film is shot in London Paris and New York with three virtual teams set up in these three cities. The film released in March 2012 and has obtained good reviews by the critics.
In 6 years (between 2006 and 2011), Vivek has successfully set up / produced 9 feature films that were directed by first time directors which proves to show his command and authority over producing content.
Vivek has currently written two romantic comedies namely ‘Game Over’ and ‘When Jai Married Jeena’ to be directed by him in 2012/2013.
Game Over is an adaptation of the best selling novel ‘Game Over’ written by one of England’s most successful writer Adele Parks.
‘When Jai Married Jeena’ is an adaptation of ‘The Marriage Market’ written by the hugely successful British/Asian writer Nisha Minhas.
EDUCATION
Sydenham College, University of Mumbai Mumbai, India Master of Commerce, Part - 1 1996 • Major in Banking & Finance
H. R. College of Commerce & Economics Mumbai, India Bachelor of Commerce 1995 • Major in Accounting & Finance Management
Campion School Mumbai, India Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) 1990
Date of birth: April 03, 1974