Vikram Teja Jayanti is an

Indian-American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

documentary

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

responsible for a number of well known full-feature documentary films. Two films he has production credits on have received

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for Best Full-Feature Documentary: he was a co-producer of the 1997 blockbuster ''

When We Were Kings ''When We Were Kings'' is a 1996 American documentary film directed by Leon Gast about the " Rumble in the Jungle" heavyweight championship match that was held on October 30, 1974, in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) between worl ...

'' and a creative consultant on 2005's ''

Born Into Brothels ''Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids'' is a 2004 Indian-American documentary film about the children of prostitutes in Sonagachi, Kolkata's red light district. The widely acclaimed film, written and directed by Zana Briski and Ross ...

''. A sampling of his other work includes ''Innocents Abroad'', '' The Man Who Bought Mustique'', '' James Ellroy's Feast of Death'', '' Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine'', ''Lincoln'' and ''The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector''. He and his films have also won a number of other awards, including the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and have been nominated for others. Jayanti is currently a Film Studies tutor at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. He is a frequent collaborator with the award-winning film-maker Anthony Wall, Editor of BBC ''Arena''.

Early life

Vikram Jayanti was born in New York in 1955, and spent his childhood variously in France, Italy, Switzerland, India and Costa Rica. He completed his education in England at

Tonbridge School (God Giveth the Increase) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = , president = , head_label ...

and attended the

University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020� ...

Career

After seeing

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, inclu ...

's ''

Mean Streets ''Mean Streets'' is a 1973 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese and co-written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin. The film stars Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. It was released by Warner Bros. on October 2, 1973. De Niro won the National ...

'' and

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with u ...

's ''

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser ''The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser'' (german: Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle; lit. ''Every Man for Himself and God Against All'') is a 1974 West German drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog and starring Bruno Schleinstein (credited as ...

'' in the same week he moved to Los Angeles in 1977 to become a filmmaker. He began producing anthropological documentaries, including '' In Her Own Time'', about the anthropologist Barbara Myerhoff, and later ran two documentary film festivals in Los Angeles. His future work garnered numerous awards, such as a Special Jury Prize at Sundance and an Oscar in 1997 for ''

''. Since then he has directed a series of feature documentaries, which his friends call his "American monsters" series, about larger-than-life characters such as

Ken Kesey Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. Kesey was born in ...

James Ellroy Lee Earle "James" Ellroy (born March 4, 1948) is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a telegrammatic prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, ...

Julian Schnabel Julian Schnabel (born October 26, 1951) is an American painter and filmmaker. In the 1980s, he received international attention for his "plate paintings" — with broken ceramic plates set onto large-scale paintings. Since the 1990s, he has been ...

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by ...

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

and

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...

. '' The Man Who Bought Mustique'', which premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

in September 2000, was nominated for a BAFTA, and the UK's Channel Four version of the film won the Indie award for Best Documentary in 2000. Jayanti is known for "his gonzo choice of subjects," and he "has also produced high-profile television documentaries with his signature combination of eccentricity and amazement."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jayanti, Vikram Living people American documentary filmmakers People educated at Tonbridge School Alumni of the University of Warwick American expatriates in the United Kingdom Year of birth missing (living people)