Rajan Khosa recently co-wrote and directed feature film GATTU, which is officially accepted for its international premiere at Berlin International Film Festival in Feb 2012. Gattu is about following your dream, it is about following your heart against all odds.
From early nineties Rajan lived and practiced filmmaking in London. Now he is based in Mumbai where he is experimenting with all kinds of genres and formats.
Rajan’s acclaimed debut feature filmDance of the Wind, 1997, was set in the world of Indian classical music and dealt with teacher/disciple relationship. It focused on the power of oral knowledge in ancient cultures.
Dance of the Wind was an international co-production between six countries, first of its kind in India, and also in Europe. The co-producers were Film council, UK; Cinematheque, France; NFDC India; also Germany, Switzerland and Netherlands. The film’s world premiere was at Venice Film Festival and it won major awards (Best Director, Best Actor, Audience Award etc.) at various festival including Rotterdam, Chicago, London, Nantes etc., while enjoying a successful worldwide theatrical release. It is still a favourite repeat on distribution circuits, and on UK, French and German TV.
Rajan Khosa is an alumnus of the Royal College of Arts in London. Earlier, in India, he had dropped out of a design school, NID, Ahmedabad, to train in Film Direction at FTII, Pune.
His half hour Indian diploma WISDOM TREE (Bodhvriksha), dealt with the theme of nursing and caring for the old people. It garnered him a National Award in India and three International Awards at Oberhausen. He had been the youngest Indian filmmaker ever, to receive such accolades.
Rajan created his innovative production outfit – Elephant Eye, first in London, where it implemented Dance of the Wind, and now in Mumbai, where it executive produced GATTU. It has done various film installations, several short films and music videos, for a wide variety of private and public clients. His film Flower Girl was originally conceived as an installation around a Bodhi Tree at World Expo 2005. Later it played in the official selection at the London Film Festival, IFFLA (Los Angeles) and Pusan Film Festival 2005.
For his conceptual and writing skills, Rajan has been recipient of the Huber Bals Award in Rotterdam, Montecinemaverite Award in Locarno, and was invited to the prestigious Equinoxe Workshop in France.
In 2009-10, Rajan created the first feature length multi-media biopic, combining film and holography, on Sadhu Vaswani, the well know social worker and spiritualist, who worked to uplift the mankind.
Elephant Eye is currently developing a few features – a Chekhov’s adaptation of Black Monk,and a supernatural thriller Mother Tongue.
Rajan has served on various juries; he is a voting member of BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television) and a founding member of IIFW (Indian Independent Filmmakers Worldwide).
