Vipul Shah explores almost every visual entertainment medium possible!
It’s every filmmaker’s dream to have creative liberty while narrating his or story on the big screen or any visual entertainment platform. But very rarely do we see the storytellers having the opportunity or talent to explore almost every visual entertainment medium possible in their cinematic journey. Director-producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah is one such remarkably talented exception of the Indian entertainment industry!
Interestingly, Vipul Shah is one of the few Indian directors who have tried his hand at theatre, regional television, mainstream television, regional films, Hindi films, ad films and now venturing into OTT. In theatre also, he has successfully carved a niche for himself attempting inter-college, experimental theatre and commercial theatre, street plays to everything.
Vipul recalls as he goes back the memory lane, “I didn’t have plan for my future when I started doing theatre. I live in the moment and creatively what excites me at that point of time, I go ahead and make it. When I was doing theatre, I had no idea that one day I will enter into TV space or films. But then TV came and I accepted it as a new format and we started regional television for Ahmedabad Doordarshan. From there, I progressed to making the first daily soap of India, so to say, called ‘Ek Mahal Ho Sapno Ka’ which went on to do 1000 episodes. While I was doing that, I was offered my first Gujarat film, which was quite challenging as it was shot in 35 mm cinemascope format and Dolby sound.”
“Post that, I got my first Hindi film ‘Aankhen’ and the Hindi film journey started. While I was doing films, I also did a couple of ad films and that experience was also unique because in ad films, filmmakers don’t have much of a role because the brand works with the marketing agency and creative team on exactly what they want and how they want. As filmmakers, we just have to go and execute it in a way. After working on a few ads, I decided to take a break. And now I am doing OTT, which feels like a complete journey. Except documentaries, I have practically worked on all possible formats that exists in entertainment field. In theatre also, I did street theatre, experimental theatre, competitive theatre, virtual, musicals, non-musical, etc. Maybe one day, I would also want to make a documentary,” Vipul concludes.
After announcing two ambitious and interesting projects recently – a medical thriller titled ‘Human’ (web show) and ‘Sanak’ (movie), Vipul Shah has already started working on the same, simultaneously. While ‘Human’ is an emotional drama about the underbelly of the human drug testing and the world of medical scam, ‘Sanak’ is an intense, emotional, action film.
‘Human’ features the versatile actress Shefali Shah, Ram Kapoor, Kirti Kulhari as lead characters and it went on floors in January this year. The web series will be co-directed by Vipul Shah and Mozez Singh. ‘Sanak’ stars Vidyut along with Chandan Roy Sanyal, Neha Dhupia and Rukmini Maitra (who is making her Bollywood debut). Presented by Zee Studios in association with Sunshine Pictures, ‘Sanak’ is a Vipul Amrutlal Shah production, directed by Kanishk Verma.