https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Gurvinder_SinghGurvinder Singh - Revision history2026-07-31T10:27:03ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Gurvinder_Singh&diff=153362&oldid=previmported>GreenC bot at 01:29, 9 August 20212021-08-09T01:29:53Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{short description|Indian film director}}<br />
{{about||the Indian cricketer|Gurvinder Singh (cricketer)|the Indian footballer|Gurwinder Singh|the wrestler|Dilsher Shanky}}<br />
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{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}<br />
{{Infobox person<br />
| name = Gurvinder Singh<br />
| image = Golden Peacock award to Gurvinder Singh’s Punjabi film ‘Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan’ (cropped).jpg<br />
| caption = Gurvinder Singh at the Belgrade Auteur Film Festival, 2017 <br />
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| occupation = Director<br />
| nationality = Indian<br />
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'''Gurvinder Singh''' is an Indian film director. He is best known for his [[Punjabi language]] films ''[[Anhe Ghore Da Daan]]'', and Chauthi Koot ([[The Fourth Direction]]) which premiered at Venice and [[Cannes Film Festival]]<ref>{{cite news | url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Punjabi-film-Chauthi-Koot-goes-to-Cannes/articleshow/46941937.cms | title=Punjabi film 'Chauthi Koot' goes to Cannes | work=[[Times of India]] | date=16 April 2015 | accessdate=14 May 2015}}</ref> respectively. Gurvinder is an alumnus of the prestigious [[Film and Television Institute of India|Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune]] from where he studied film-making and graduated in 2001.<ref name=Singh>{{cite web|url=https://www.festivalscope.com/director/singh-gurvinder |title=Gurvinder Singh |accessdate=18 June 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Bollywood/I-wasn-t-expecting-national-award-Gurvinder-Singh/Article1-822343.aspx | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308053840/http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Bollywood/I-wasn-t-expecting-national-award-Gurvinder-Singh/Article1-822343.aspx | url-status=dead | archive-date=8 March 2012 | title=I wasn't expecting national award: Gurvinder Singh | work=[[Hindustan Times]] | date=7 March 2012 | agency=IANS | accessdate=18 June 2012 | location=New Delhi}}</ref> He travelled extensively through Punjab between 2002 and 2006, living and traveling with folk itinerants, documenting folk ballads and oral narratives. It led to his first documentary 'Pala'. He continued to make short experimental works and documenting arts/artists for the next few years. In 2005 he was invited by avant-garde Indian filmmaker [[Mani Kaul]] to be his teaching assistant for a master-class at FTII, which led to a close association with the filmmaker who became his mentor. He translated and published a book of conversations of Udayan Vajpeyi with [[Mani Kaul]], titled 'Uncloven Space'. His latest film is 'Infiltrator' starring Veer Rajwant Singh which is a 15-minute short story in an international omnibus called 'In the same garden'<br />
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==Career==<br />
His first short film ''Pala'' was a documentary based on one of the Punjabi folk singers and was sponsored by [[India Foundation for the Arts]] (IFA).<ref name=Singh/> He directed his first fiction feature in Punjabi, ''Anhe Ghore Da Daan'' (English: ''Alms for a Blind Horse'') in 2011. The film, based on the novel of the same name by well-known Punjabi writer [[Gurdial Singh]], dealt with the angst and distress of the marginalised lower caste in Punjab. <br />
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The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and screened at various festivals including Rotterdam, Busan, London, Munich, etc., besides releasing at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. It won the 'Special Jury Award' at Abu Dhabi Film Festival, and the 'Golden Peacock' for Best Film at the International Film Festival of India, Goa, in 2012. It also won three National Awards in India, including [[National Film Award for Best Direction]] and [[National Film Award for Best Cinematography]]’ at the [[59th National Film Awards]] presented on 3 May 2012.The award consisted of 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)', a certificate and a cash prize of {{INRConvert|250000}}/-.<ref name="59thaward">{{cite web|url=http://pib.nic.in/release/rel_print_page.asp?relid=80734|title=59th National Film Awards for the Year 2011 Announced|publisher=Press Information Bureau (PIB), India|accessdate=18 June 2012}}</ref><ref name="59thawardndtv">{{cite news|url=http://www.ndtv.com/article/bollywood/59th-national-awards-winners-183576|title=59th National Awards: Winners|accessdate=18 June 2012|date=7 March 2012|agency=[[NDTV]]|location=New Delhi}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=http://ibnlive.in.com/news/national-awards-g-singh-wins-best-director/237019-8.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309225910/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/national-awards-g-singh-wins-best-director/237019-8.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=9 March 2012 | title=National Awards: Gurvinder Singh wins Best Director for 'Anhe Ghorey Da Daan' | work=[[IBN Live]]| date=7 March 2012 | accessdate=18 June 2012 | location=New Delhi}}</ref> The jury presented the awards for, {{Quote|...its haunting portrayal of the lives of people in a village as they battle with the reality of large scale industrial development. The director deploys an inventive storytelling form where sound, space and body operate distinctly to frame the experience of a fragile existence. Each face portrayed in the film carries the signs of persistent trauma. This is an aesthetic tour de force that confidently and successfully reinvents the contours of Indian experimental cinema.<ref name=59thnfafeature>{{cite web|title=59th National Film Awards for 2011 - Feature Films|url=http://dff.nic.in/Pagesfrom59thNFAPressRelease-featured.pdf|publisher=[[Directorate of Film Festivals]]|accessdate=18 June 2012}}</ref>}}<br />
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His second feature Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction), an Indo-French co-production, premiered in 'Un Certain Regard' competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015. Based on two short stories by Punjabi writer [[Waryam Singh Sandhu]], the film explores the fear, mistrust and paranoia in Punjab in the background of the militant unrest in the 1980s. The New York Times write in one review,<br />
{{Quote|...a fictional tale that opens with two Hindu men running and closes with them walking together with several newfound Sikh confederates in a quietly moving assertion of Indian unity. In between, the country’s political and religious agonies largely shudder right below the surface, creating intense, palpable unease.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/18/from-india-a-tale-shaped-by-a-directors-memories-of-an-assassination/?_r=1|title=From India, a Tale Shaped by a Director's Memories of an Assassination|last=Dargis|first=Manohla|website=ArtsBeat|access-date=2016-06-17|date=18 May 2015}}</ref> }}<br />
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The film has travelled to various international festivals and won the 'Grand Prix' at the Belgrade Auteur Film Festival,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cineuropa.org/nw.aspx?t=newsdetail&l=en&did=302647|title=The Fourth Direction wins Belgrade Festival of Auteur Film|website=Cineuropa - the best of european cinema|access-date=2016-06-17}}</ref> the [[Singapore International Film Festival]] [[List of Singapore International Film Festival awards|Silver Screen Award]] for Best Asian Feature Film.<ref name="Penske Business Media, LLC">{{cite web|last1=Frater|first1=Patrick|title='Fourth Direction' Wins Top Prize at Singapore Festival|url=https://variety.com/2015/film/asia/fourth-direction-top-prize-at-singapore-festival-1201654841/|website=Variety|publisher=Penske Business Media, LLC|accessdate=17 December 2015|date=5 December 2015}}</ref> and the 'Golden Gateway' for Best Indian Film at the [[Mumbai Film Festival]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/haraamkhor-chauthi-koot-bag-top-honours-at-mumbai-film-fest/|title='Haraamkhor', 'Chauthi Koot' bag top honours at Mumbai film fest|date=6 November 2015|website=The Indian Express|access-date=2016-06-17}}</ref>[[Mumbai Film Festival|.]] It received the National Award for 'Best Punjabi Film' in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/regional/your-guess-is-as-good-as-mine-as-to-who-dictated-the-national-awards-gurvinder-singh-2823594/|title=Your guess is as good as mine as to who dictated the (national) awards: Gurvinder Singh|date=29 May 2016|website=The Indian Express|access-date=2016-06-17}}</ref> The film recently had a commercial release in France and is due to release in India in August 2016.<br />
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He has also directed music videos for singers [[Rabbi Shergill]] and [[Jasbir Jassi]] for their respective renditions of Punjabi folk song ''[[Rabbi (album)|Jugni]]''.<br />
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[[File:GurvinderSingh On the sets of Infiltrator 2016.JPG|thumb|alt=Gurvinder Singh on the sets of 'Infiltrator', 2016|Gurvinder Singh on the sets of 'Infiltrator', 2016]]<br />
In 2016, he was invited by a Turkish production house to direct a short film ‘Infiltrator’ (16 mins) as part of an international anthology of ten short films from ten countries, titled “In The Same Garden”. The anthology premiered at the Sarajevo Film Festival in 2016 and also screened at the Warsaw Film Festival and Mumbai Film Festival. He was invited by the Belgrade Film Festival in November 2016 to be the President of the Jury for awarding the ‘Grand Prix’ at the festival. In the same year, he completed a travelogue film on the well-known Punjabi poet and friend [[Amarjit Chandan]], titled Awaazan (Voices). The film follows the poet's meetings with old friends and comrades through East Punjab and culminates in a meeting with [[John Berger]] in France. <br />
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He made an experimental film based on the short stories of the Colombian writer Garbriel Garcia Marquez as part of workshop with the students of acting at the FTII. The film titled ‘Sea of Lost Time’ (45 mins) premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2019. <br />
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His next feature blending fiction and reality, ‘Khanaur’ (Bitter Chestnut) in ‘Pahari’ dialect of Himachal Pradesh, premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in 2019 and was nominated for the Kim Jiseok Award. The film had its Indian Premiere at MAMI, 2019 and its European premiere at Rotterdam Film Festival, 2020.<br />
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His new feature in Punjabi ‘Adh Chanani Raat’ (Crescent Night), based on a novel of the same title by Punjabi writer Gurdial Singh, is ready for release. <br />
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He has taught filmmaking at the Film & Television Institute of India (Pune), Satyajit Ray Film Institute (Kolkata), National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad) and the KR Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts (Kerala). <br />
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==Filmography==<br />
{| class="wikitable sortable"<br />
|-<br />
! Year !! Original Title !! English Title !! Language !! Length !! class="unsortable" | Notes<br />
|-<br />
| 2003 || ''Pala'' || ''Pala'' || Punjabi || 65 minutes || <br> Documentary of a Punjabi-folk balladeer<br />
|-<br />
| 2004 || ''Passage'' || ''Passage'' || - || - || Clip <br> Clip on passage of time focusing on ambient sounds<br />
|-<br />
| 2004 || ''A Winter Tale'' || ''A Winter Tale'' || - || - || Clip <br> An account of 6 days spent by Singh at his maternal grandmother's place in Delhi<br />
|-<br />
| 2007 || ''Legs Above my Feet'' || ''Legs Above my Feet'' || English & Hindi || 40 minutes || Conversations with a [[Kathak]] dancer, Sushmita Ghosh<br />
|-<br />
| 2008 || ''An Untitled Film'' || ''An Untitled Film'' ||- || - || Short film <br> Interviews of FTII graduates<br />
|-<br />
| 2009 || ''Kavalam'' || ''Kavalam'' || Malyalam & English || 60 minutes || Documentary on [[Kavalam Narayana Panicker]]<br />
|-<br />
| 2011 || ''[[Anhe Ghore Da Daan]]'' || ''[[Alms for a Blind Horse]]'' || Punjabi || 113 minutes || First feature film, Winner of the 'Special Jury Award' at Abu Dhabi Film Festival, the 'Golden Peacock' for Best Film at the International Film Festival of India, Goa, and three national awards<br />
|-<br />
| 2015 || ''[[Chauthi Koot]]'' || ''[[The Fourth Direction]]'' || Punjabi || 115 minutes || Second feature film, Winner of the [[Singapore International Film Festival]] [[List of Singapore International Film Festival awards|Silver Screen Award]] for Best Asian Feature Film,<ref name="Penske Business Media, LLC"/> Golden Gate Award for Best Film, [[Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image|MAMI]]. Grand Prix, [[Belgrade Auteur Film Festival]]<br />
|-<br />
| 2016 || ''Awaazan'' || ''Voices'' || Punjabi || 45 minutes || Travelogue film on Punjabi poet [[Amarjit Chandan]]<br />
|-<br />
| 2016 || ''Ghuspaithia'' || ''Infiltrator'' || Punjabi || 45 minutes || Short film part of the omnibus titled 'In The Same Garden'<br />
|-<br />
| 2019 || ''Khanaur'' || ''Bitter Chestnut'' || Pahari, Hindi & English || 100 minutes || Third feature film, World Premiere at [[Busan International Film Festival]] in 2019; nominated for the Kim Jiseok Award. Indian Premiere at MAMI, 2019 and its European premiere at [[Rotterdam Film Festival]], 2020<br />
|-<br />
| 2022 || ''Adh Chanani Raat'' || ''Crescent Night'' || Punjabi || 109 minutes || Post-production<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
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==Bibliography==<br />
<br />
* [https://books.google.com/books/about/Uncloven_Space.html?id=KQN7oAEACAAJ&redir_esc=y Uncloven Space] (translation) - book of conversations of Udayan Vajpeyi with [[Mani Kaul]] (2013)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://acrazymindseye.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/swabhaav/|title=Swabhaav|last=said|first=Prajna Shastry|date=29 July 2013|website=Crazy Mind's Eye|access-date=2016-06-17}}</ref><br />
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==Awards==<br />
<br />
; [[59th National Film Awards]]<br />
* 2011 - [[National Film Award for Best Direction|Best Direction]] for ''[[Anhe Ghore Da Daan]]''<br />
* 2011 - [[National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Punjabi|Best Feature Film in Punjabi]] for ''[[Anhe Ghore Da Daan]]''; shared with [[National Film Development Corporation of India|NFDC]] (producer)<br />
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; [[63rd National Film Awards]]<br />
* 2015 - [[National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Punjabi|Best Feature Film in Punjabi]] for ''[[Chauthi Koot]]''; shared with [[National Film Development Corporation of India|NFDC]] & Kartikeya Singh (producers)<br />
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; Others<br />
* 2011- Special Jury Award for ''[[Anhe Ghore Da Daan]]'', [[Abu Dhabi Film Festival]] <br />
* 2012 - Golden Peacock for Best Film for ''[[Anhe Ghore Da Daan]]'', [[International Film Festival of India]] <br />
* 2012 - Best Film for ''[[Anhe Ghore Da Daan]]'', Imagine India Film Festival, Madrid <br />
* 2012 - Paris Project Award at the 10th Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum for ''[[Chauthi Koot]]''. Shared with ''Flowing Stories'' directed by Tsang Tsui-shan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.indiantelevision.com/aac/y2k12/aac379.php |title=Gurvinder Singh's film wins Hong Kong Fest award |publisher=Indian television.com |date=23 March 2012 |accessdate= 18 June 2012}}</ref> <br />
* 2015 - Golden Gateway for ''[[Chauthi Koot]]'', MAMI [[Mumbai Film Festival]] <br />
* 2015 - Grand Prix for ''[[Chauthi Koot]]'', [http://faf.rs/en/ Belgrade Auteur Film Festival]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://faf.rs/21-festival-autorskog-filma/cetvrti-pravac-pobednik-21-festivala-autorskog-filma/|title="Četvrti pravac" pobednik 21. Festivala autorskog filma {{!}} Festival autorskog filma|website=faf.rs|access-date=2016-06-17}}</ref> <br />
* 2015 - Silver Screen Award for Best Asian Film for ''[[Chauthi Koot]]'', [[Singapore International Film Festival]]<br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist|30em}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
* {{IMDb name|4003178}}<br />
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{{Gurvinder Singh}}<br />
{{NationalFilmAwardBestDirection}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Gurvinder}}<br />
[[Category:Film directors from Himachal Pradesh]]<br />
[[Category:Living people]]<br />
[[Category:Indian documentary filmmakers]]<br />
[[Category:Film and Television Institute of India alumni]]<br />
[[Category:Punjabi-language film directors]]<br />
[[Category:Best Director National Film Award winners]]<br />
[[Category:21st-century Indian film directors]]<br />
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]</div>imported>GreenC bot