Who is Pan Nalin, director whose film Chhello Show got picked as India's official entry to Oscars

Pan Nalin was born in a remote village near Gir Forest in Gujarat. Till the age of 12, he sold tea from his father's canteen at the Khijadiya Junction Railway Station. Due to his interest in cinema, he studied Fine Arts at the M.S. University, Vadodara for a year and went to the acclaimed National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

After his studies, Nalin moved to Mumbai looking for his Bollywood break and joined Durga Khote Productions. He directed several commercial and corporate films for the company and then later made documentaries for international TV networks such as BBC and Discovery. He later founded his own production company called Monsoon Films.

Pan Nalin made his feature film directorial debut with the Shawn Ku and Christy Chung starrer 2001 independent film Samsara for which he won several awards at international film festivals. In 2006, he made Valley of Flowers starring Milind Soman, Naseeruddin Shah, and French actress Mylene Jampanoi. His third feature film was the 2015 drama Angry Indian Goddesses which had an ensemble cast comprising  Sandhya Mridul, Anushka Manchanda, Sarah-Jane Dias, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Amrit Maghera, and Rajshri Deshpande.

The 2021 Gujarati film Chhello Show aka Last Film Show is a coming-of-age drama film is a part-autobiographical drama that captures the childhood innocence and the universal magic of the movies. Starring Bhavin Rabari, Vikas Bata, Richa Meena, Bhavesh Shrimali, Dipen Raval, and Rahul Koli, Chhello Show will be released in theatres in Gujarat and on select screens across India on 14th October 2022.

Reacting to his film being picked as India's entry to Oscars 2023, the filmmaker took to his social media handles and wrote, "OMG! What a night this going to be! Gratitude to Film Federation of India and thank you FFI jury members. Thank you for believing in Chhello Show. Now I can breathe again and believe in cinema that entertains, inspires and enlightens!".