Pan Nalin came into the global spotlight with his debut feature film SAMSARA (Miramax). The movie was a commercial and critical success worldwide and won over thirty awards at various film-related events.
Nalin, a self-taught filmmaker, was born in a remote village in Gujarat, India. Until the age of 12, Nalin helped his father sell tea on a railway platform. He disliked school, putting his energy into painting and drawing instead. He also actively staged mythological dramas and folk plays.
Later, as a teenager, he left his family and village in pursuit of cinema. He studied
Fine Arts at the M.S. University of Baroda. Nalin made over fifty wedding videos to finance his education. While living in Baroda, he discovered Hollywood movies and world cinema. A year later Nalin went to study design at the prestigious National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad (NID). While at NID, he wrote about movies and managed the film club by programming films from around the world. After creating four animated films and twenty short silent films in college, Nalin concluded that the best film school is life itself.
With a passion for cinema and travel what naturally followed was documentaries. Nalin made several of them with the BBC, Discovery, Canal Plus and other leading international networks. His multiple award-winning feature documentary AYURVEDA: ART OF BEING was theatrically released worldwide with major success. To date, it remains the highest grossing Indian documentary film.
Nalin’s romantic epic VALLEY OF FLOWERS was pre-sold to nearly 35 countries and considered a major underground hit. It still continues to enjoy a multiple-platform release with cult, critical and commercial success worldwide. The Manga-like world of VALLEY OF FLOWERS was filmed in Japan and in the remote, high altitude Himalayas. VALLEY OF FLOWERS won Best Picture at IFFLA Los Angeles.
Nalin’s latest feature documentary FAITH CONNECTIONS was an official selection at Toronto International Film Festival (2013) and it won the Audience Choice Award at IFFLA Los Angeles (2013). FAITH CONNECTIONS, currently in theatrical release across Europe, was also released in the U.S and Australia with great critical and commercial success. Nalin recently completed filming a spiritual thriller in India and New Zealand called BEYOND THE KNOWN WORLD starring David Wenham & Emmanuelle Beart, which is now in post-production in New Zealand.
Nalin’s tragic comedy screenplay SLIGHTLY SANE adapted from S. H. Manto’s TOBA TEK SINGH recently won the CJ Entertainment’s Award for Best International Project at the Asia Film Market of Busan International Film Festival, South Korea.
Nalin has served as a jury member at many prestigious international film festivals, has attended several prominent, filmmaking and screenwriting labs, and has been on the panels of many prestigious cinema, literature & arts conclaves. In 2014 Pan Nalin made it to The Better India’s prestigious list of “25 NRI Across The World Who Have Made India Proud”.