Director, producer and screenwriter Nikkhil Advani recently completed 20 years in the entertainment industry. Sharing details about his journey in Bollywood, Nikkhil whose directorial debut was Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), said, “Actually, I am celebrating 30 years in this industry. For the first 10 years, I worked as an associate director with film directors, Saeed Mirza and Sudhir Mishra. Then I worked with Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra. I want to give credit to Yash Johar for helping me in this journey.”

He added, “Directing and producing is a work of the right brain and left brain. My left brain is always talking about directing and my right brain is always talking about producing.”

Elaborating on the impact of OTT and the change it has brought about, the filmmaker explains, “Just as there is the pressure at the box office for what will be the number on Friday, on Saturday, or will the picture continue to rock the box office on Monday, people think that it does not happen on OTT. But it does and there the pressure spreads. It gets shared because OTT is not only a director’s medium. The platform has decided how this subject should be. Films in theatres have slumped because people now think that they would get this much on OTT.”

Vedaa directed by Nikkhil, starring John Abraham, Sharvari Wagh and Abhishek Banerjee will release next year. “I am also starting with Freedom At Midnight, a book by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. Making a film on that is a dream come true,” signs off the filmmaker.