Utkarsh Chatuvedi

Directing

Born: November 1, 1999 (age 26) · Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India

Utkarsh Chaturvedi is an independent filmmaker, writer, editor and photographer from India. His work is rooted in observation, human behaviour and the contradictions of everyday life, with an interest in ordinary people, their aspirations, loneliness, relationships and quiet struggles.

He began his creative journey through journalism, graduating in the discipline and working as a documentary journalist. Documenting real lives became an important foundation for his filmmaking, teaching him to observe people and environments closely and approach characters with curiosity rather than judgement. He later trained in screenwriting at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, and developed his understanding of editing under German film editor Kei Eiermann. He also studied Film Appreciation through IIT Madras and FTII Pune and trained in storytelling photography with National Geographic.

Working across fiction, documentary and advertising, Utkarsh has developed a practice that combines realism with the subtle absurdities of life. His experience in journalism, photography, writing and editing informs his process, from observing a world and finding its visual language to discovering a film’s emotional rhythm in the edit.

His work has received recognition in India and internationally. He received the Best Editor award at the Indian International Film Festival in 2020. His documentary Walking Under the Sun earned him a Best Director nomination at the Standalone International Film Festival & Awards in Hollywood. His debut feature was nominated for Best Indian Debut Feature at the 18th International Film Festival of Thrissur, and he received the Emerging Indian Filmmaker Award at the CineMaking International Film Festival in Bangladesh.

In 2026, Utkarsh was selected for Platform Busan, a programme for emerging independent filmmakers from Asia held alongside the Busan International Film Festival. His developing feature, Ready 1…2…, has also been part of IFFD x CineXchange. Set in Agra and rooted in its language, music and culture, the film follows a young man from a wedding-band family who dreams of becoming a singer while navigating debt, family responsibility and dignity.

His recent film FLOWERMAN is a 35-minute independent fiction film exploring loneliness, curiosity and unexpected human connection through a woman who begins receiving anonymous flowers outside her apartment every morning. Independently produced and self-funded, it reflects his interest in finding emotional complexity within seemingly simple encounters.

For Utkarsh, cinema is a way of looking closely at people rather than providing easy answers about them. He aspires to develop a personal cinematic language where realism, humour, discomfort, silence and tenderness coexist, creating culturally rooted Indian films that retain their specificity while finding emotional resonance with audiences beyond geographical boundaries.