BIO
ABHIMANYU KANODIA
Born at Ajmer, Rajasthan on 31st December, 1988. After completing class 12th from Mayoor School (Ajmer), he moved to Mumbai (India), to take up Chartered Accountancy course and completed it in year 2013. In 2013, he joined Mumbai based film school, Whistling Woods International to study filmmaking. He graduated in July 2015 with a major in Film Direction.
A film school graduate, Abhimanyu is a competent filmmaker having experience in writing and directing Web Series, Short Films, Documentaries, TV commercials, Brand Films, Music Videos and Educational Courses. He is hardworking, eager to learn, self-motivated and result oriented person with good leadership qualities. He is currently working as a freelance Writer-Director based out of Mumbai. He specializes in Visual Story-telling that includes all the filmmaking steps starting from, development, pre-production, production & post-production.
An award-winning film director and writer, his debut short film KATHAKAAR, featuring Piyush Mishra in the lead role has achieved a rare feat of being a Semi-Finalist in the Foreign Narrative category of the 43rd Annual Student Academy Awards, Oscars, 2016. Among 1,749 films that were submitted to the Student Academy this year, Kathakaar made it in roughly the top 5% of all films submitted. The film also qualified as a Finalist at the Jio Filmfare Short Film Awards, 2017. Kathakaar has bagged prestigious awards at renowned film festivals such as 5th Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival- 2015, 5th Washington D.C. South Asian Film Festival, Washington D.C. - 2016, II International Motivational Film Festival, Russia- 2015 and 6th Jagran Film Festival, Mumbai - 2015. On top of that it has won 20 awards including 3 international awards and has been officially selected in more than 30 film festivals across the globe.
In 2015, Abhimanyu was selected to participate in an international film making program called Looking China, jointly established by Beijing Normal University and International Data Group (IDG), the Institute for International Communication of Chinese Culture. Abhimanyu travelled to Xiamen, China and stayed there for a period of 16 days in July, 2015, at the Xiamen University and made a short documentary titled BEYOND THE TIDES. The documentary was officially selected and screened at the Chinese American Film Festival, 2015, held in California, USA. It was also screened at Xiamen University, China.
In 2017, he made it in the top three young directors of India, during the country wide hunt by MTV INDIA. He was commissioned a short film by MTV powered by HP Laptops and was mentored by Radhika Apte. The film premiered on MTV India’s TV Channel along with Abhimanyu’s Interview with Radhika Apte.
Abhimanyu went on to make some of the extremely successful and acclaimed professional short films, Jangle Bells (2015), Queen of Hearts (2016), MTV Abhineta (2017), Truce (2019), Tape: A Love Story (2020), Sau Gram Zindagi (2020), Tera Yaar Hu Main (2020), Meri Pehli Bike (2020), Nice to Meet You (2020).
He has also made three acclaimed short documentaries- NOOR-E-MAYOOR (2022), Rajesh Deewana (2017) & Beyond the Tides (2015) and many successful Music Videos like Tum Bhi Na (2016), Kahe Koi Aansoo (2020), Tera Kya Hota x Nene Lekunte Mashup (2020) and O Bandeya (2020). He has also worked as a director on various TV Commercials/Brand films.
In 2021, he directed a Web Series for Dice Media titled, FIRSTS: SEASON 5.
In 2023, Abhimanyu has made his first featurette documentary film 'MAIN THANSU DUR NAHI' on the life and legacy of Maharaja Hanwant Singh of Jodhpur! The film was officially selected for the competition section at one of the most prestigious film festivals of India- the 18th Mumbai International Film Festival 2024 organized by the National Films Development Corporation of India (NFDC), I&B Ministry, Government of India.
Abhimanyu Kanodia has established successful collaborations with renowned film and media personalities, including Piyush Mishra, Radhika Apte, Manoj Bajpai, Darshan Jariwala, Smita Jayakar, Namit Das, Monali Thakur, Sumeet Vyas, Manasi Parekh, Vipin Sharma, Vatsal Sheth, Mukti Mohan, Smita Bansal, Priya Banerjee and more. He has worked on diverse projects with esteemed entities such as Mr. Subhash Ghai's Mukta Arts Ltd, MTV India, Voot, Hotstar, Dice Media, The Zoom Studios, Scroll India, Songfest India, Being Indian, Looking China.
His films have been selected in over 65 international and national film festivals, winning over 30 awards. The combined YouTube, Facebook and Instagram views of all his work stands at more than 30 Million.
Abhimanyu is also an educationist and has written & directed 10 hours of online Direction Course Material for Whistling Woods International’s online learning platform ‘WWI VIRTUAL ACADEMY 2019’.
Abhimanyu Kanodia is also a guest faculty at Whistling Woods International, for imparting lectures on various aspects of Film Writing and Directing.
Abhimanyu has conducted Filmmaking Talks & Workshops across India at prestigious schools like Mayo College Ajmer, Mayoor School Ajmer, Mayoor School Chopasni Jodhpur, Sunshine Worldwide School Goa, Oberoi International School, Mumbai to name a few.
He was invited as a Judge on various prestigious film festivals like The Mumbai Fest, International Short Film Festival and Film General Championship at IIT Mumbai.
At Work!
