Anupam Sharma - Director & Producer

Australia’s leading Indian cinema authority and practitioner, Anupam Sharma is a filmmaker, speaker and author. With Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Films and Theatre, Anupam wrote a thesis on Indian cinema from UNSW, as well as authored a number of research papers and parts of books.

In 2013, Anupam was appointed head of the recently established Australia India Film Fund and was nominated as one of the 50 most influential professionals in the Australian Film Industry. As managing director of films and casting for TEMPLE, an award-winning production and consultancy firm based out of Fox Studios, Sydney, Anupam has led a team of film professionals working on more than 214 projects between India and Australia, which include feature films, television serials, music videos, television commercials, as well as film festivals. Most recently Anupam completed directing the highly successful series of television commercials Jhappi Time for Destination NSW. With a roll out throughout 2014, the commercials comprise one of the largest investments the state has made in India.

In 2011, Anupam teamed up with film veteran Peter Castaldi and launched the Australian Film Initiative to market and promote Australian screen culture in non-traditional markets, resulting in India’s first annual Australian Film Festival with support from Hugh Jackman in 2011, a Baz Luhrmann retrospective in 2012-2013, and a Phillip Noyce retrospective in 2014-2015. With development investment from Screen Australia and Screen NSW, Anupam is currently developing a slate of high profile Indian Australian film projects with major Australian film makers including Bill Bennett and John Winter. His other credits include directing the commissioned short documentary Indian Aussies – Terms & Conditions Apply, the music video Made In Australia, as well as a number of major Bollywood films shot in Australia.

Anupam has advised many government and private bodies in relation to Indian films, including Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge, Channel Seven, the Department of Foreign Affairs (Australia) and World Movies, among others. In 2012, he was the chief judge and advisor to the first India centric Australian reality television show on SBS - Bollywood Star.

With a high social media following, Anupam is a respected commentator and frequent speaker at various conferences and on television programs including on the ABC, the NINE Network and SBS TV, and at SPAA, Art Gallery of NSW and the Powerhouse Museum. Anupam Sharma was honoured to be an Australia Day Ambassador in 2013, 2014 and 2015, and was one of the thirteen young professionals shortlisted in the prestigious ‘Face To Watch’ series by The (Sydney) Magazine.