Enjoy lunch with Hollywood producer Deepak Nayar in Los Angeles!
DEEPAK NAYAR is one of the most respected independent producers in Hollywood having worked with the likes of David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Paul Schrader & Mark Waters. His films, besides being box office successes, have played in competition at the various film festivals across the world, including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance where they have won him many awards.
Nayar began his career in his native India, collaborating with the Merchant Ivory group on "Heat & Dust,” "The Deceivers," and “The Perfect Murder. “After a move to Los Angeles, he set up his own production company, Kintop Pictures. In 1997 he produced David Lynch’s highly acclaimed feature "Lost Highway," followed by "The Million Dollar Hotel," which he produced alongside Bono (U2) starring Mel Gibson. His collaboration with Wim Wenders earned an Oscar® nomination for the hugely successful documentary "The Buena Vista Social Club" and a Grammy nomination for the music video "Teatro. "
In 2002, he produced another hugely successful film " Bend It Like Beckham,” earning both Golden Globe® and BAFTA nominations. He followed this with another collaboration with Gurinder Chadha, the cross-cultural box office hit" Bride and Prejudice "and "Mistress of Spices." Some of his other notable films have been Paul Schrader’s thriller "The Walker, “ Wim Wender’s "End of Violence" and Mika Kaurismaki’s "LA Without a Map."
Besides working with auteur film makers, Nayar has given many first time filmmakers their break: " 7-teen Sips" with Stephen Berra, " Harlem Aria with Bill Jennings; Matt Dillion’s directorial debut "City of Ghosts,”, and Jonathan Newman’s "Swinging With The Finkels and Foster," Mahesh Mathai’s "Bhopal Express" and "Broken Thread, " Eli Craig’s directorial debut "Tucker and Dale vs. Evil," which won the Audience Award at SXSW festival, and Pat Holdens’s "When the Lights Went Out."
Nayar is currently working alongside Reliance Entertainment as an executive producer. The first film under that collaboration, "Jesus Henry Christ," was followed by “Safe" (starring Jason Statham). Subsequent films under the partnership are "Dredd 3-D" (starring Karl Urban), "A Haunted House" (starring Marlon Wayans), "Bullet to the Head" (starring Sylvester Stallone)," Dead Man Down” (starring Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace), and ”Hummingbird” (starring Jason Statham). Under the same partnership, Nayar, was a Producer on films “Walking with Dinosaurs 3-D”, “Paranoia” (starring Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford) and “Vampire Academy”, (starring Zoey Deutch and Lucy Fry)
He has also had a notable career in TV production producing episodic series On The Air for ABC; Hotel Malibu & Second Chances for CBS; White Dwarf with Fox and Hotel Room for HBO.
Nayar co-founded India Take One Productions, a production services company based in Los Angeles and India. Some of the notable films they have worked on are “Holy Smoke”; “Alexander”; “Slumdog Millionaire”; “Eat Pray Love”; “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”; “Looking for Comedy in Muslim World”; “Life of Pi”; “Zero Dark Thirty”; “Million Dollar Arm”; and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 1 & 2 “.
In 2014, he launched Riverstone Pictures, a new London based Film Financing/Production company, with Nik Bower, formerly of Ingenious Media. Their first project, “Genius” (starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman) showed at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. This year, the company also produced “Final Portrait” (staring Armie Hammer and Geoffrey Rush), “Sleepless” (staring Michelle Monaghan and Dermot Mulroney), and “Felt” (staring Tony Goldwyn and Kate Walsh). Riverstone Pictures is currently scheduled to shoot “Show Dogs” to be directed by Raja Gosnell and “Second Objective” written by Mark Frost later this year.
Early 2016, he’s company Kintop Pictures in partnership with Reliance signed a co-production deal with Sonar Entertainment to produce scripted television projects. They are currently developing “Tina’s Mouth”, “Vampire Academy”, “Mysterious Benedict Society”, and “The Courtier”.
Other upcoming projects are a TV series for Netflix, “Sense 8”, and, feature films “Graceling”, “Paladin Prophecy”, and “Citizens of London” all based on bestsellers.