Ashish Lal

Ashish Lal
Born	Ashish Lal (1981-04-09) 9 April 1981
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	Actor Writer Director Producer
Years active	2011–present
Employer	RedAsh Films
Height	6 ft (180 cm)
Website	http://www.ashishlal.in

Ashish Lal^[1] (born 9 April 1981) is an Actor, Writer, Director and Producer based in Mumbai, India. In 2007, he founded a film production house, RedAsh Films^[2] Pvt. Ltd., which operates from Andheri West, Mumbai.

He has done his B.Tech. in Civil Engineering from IIT^[3] Delhi. Before venturing full time into films, he has worked for 4 years in the corporate world in New Delhi in the Data Analytics domain.

Family

Ashish Lal hails from a highly educated middle class Kayastha Hindu family. He has 3 elder sisters.

His father, Mr. Ajay Kumar, is a Retired Deputy Chief Mining Engineer from Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL^[4]). He was posted in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, and Asansol, West Bengal. He was born and brought up in Darbhanga, Bihar.

His mother, Mrs. Kumud Rani, was born and brought up in Saharsa, Bihar. Even though she was the female topper in 10th standard in the entire district of Saharsa, Bihar, she could not continue her studies. After few years, when she got married, with the support of her husband and family, she completed her higher education while nurturing four of her kids. She is a double MA (in Hindi and Political Science) and a LLB graduate. She also practiced as an Advocate at Dhanbad District Court for almost a decade.

His eldest sister Seema did her post graduation from the premier fashion designing institute of the country, NIFT Mumbai (National Institute of Fashion Technology), and then went on to become a Professor in the same field.

His 2nd sister, Shikha, qualified in arguably the toughest entrance exam in the world - Civil Services Entrance exam - with an All India Rank of 456. She works as a reputed IRPS officer.

His 3rd sister, Shipra, a Commerce graduate from I.P. College, Delhi University, is a MBA graduate from Houston University and presently works in Houston, Texas.

Following the education culture set by his elder sisters and parents, in 2001, Ashish also qualified in India's premiere engineering college IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), Delhi. He completed his B.Tech. in Civil Engineering in 2005.

Early life

Ashish Lal spent his childhood in Nirsa which falls in the suburbs of Dhanbad, Jharkhand. He studied at De Nobili School, Mugma. He was conferred the highest award - The Certificate for Academic Excellence - by the school when he became the 1st ranker of the entire school in the board exams of 10th standard. After that, he went to Chinmaya Vidyalaya at Bokaro Steel City, Jharkhand, to do his 11th and 12th standard studies and to prepare for IIT-JEE. After a few attempts, Ashish Lal qualified in IIT Joint Entrance Exam of 2001 with an All India Rank of 1385. He chose IIT Delhi where he got Civil Engineering. After completing his degree in 2005, he worked till 2009 in New Delhi in a MNC's Data Analytics division.

In 2007, he had already started his film production company RedAsh Films Pvt. Ltd. In 2009, after he quit his job, he permanently moved into films.

Career

Ashish Lal's stint with acting started in 2001 with college theatre via IIT Delhi's Dance and Dramatics Club aka DND Club. He acted, wrote and directed several plays. In 2003, in an inter-house Hindi Play competition adjudged by NSD (National School of Drama) professors, he was conferred with the Best Director Award.

His first feature film as an actor was named "Formula 69^[5]". It was an independent feature film made by an IIM Lucknow graduate Nitin Das and was released on DVDs in 2007.

Without any known in the film industry, Ashish Lal quit his job in 2009 and decided to venture into Bollywood. Incidentally, he met Manav who had a concept in mind for a film. Manav, Ashutosh and Ashish together took loans^[6] from about 70 people apart from taking bank loans to finally make an English Bollywood movie named With Love, Delhi!^[7] The movie was made under their start-up banner RedMat Reves Films Pvt. Ltd. Ashish Lal played the lead role in the movie and was also the story co-writer. The film also had Bollywood veterans such as Tom Alter, Kiran Kumar and Seema Biswas. Without any proper experience, guidance or backing, the film could not find any buyers. They somehow released it in theatres on 16 December 2011, through Mirchi Movies, a Times of India group distribution company. Lack of funds resulted in poor marketing, poor PR and a weak release.

In 2012, Ashish Lal moved permanently to Mumbai. He had to go through the grill any outsider struggling to enter Bollywood has to go through. In these years, he worked in several projects. Recently, he has also worked in a few Bollywood films.

In 2016, he completed a thriller Hindi feature film "Strangers on Whatsapp" in the lead role. The film is produced by Shree Mangalmurti Films and shall release in 2017.

He's also playing a very important role in the comedy Hindi feature film "Pagalpanti". Major part of the shooting has been completed in Fiji in late 2016 and the remaining part will be shot early 2017. The film is produced by Live Forever Production and shall release in mid 2017.

In 2017, Ashish Lal will direct his first Hindi feature film "No Pyaar Only Shikaar" whose pre-production is going on. He has written the script for over 1.5 years before beginning the pre-production. He's also acting in the film in one of the two main roles.

As a writer, Ashish Lal has been writing regularly since 2008. He has written 3 completed scripts with story, screenplay and dialogues. One of them "No Pyaar Only Shikaar" is in the making. The other two will be made afterwards.

Filmography

Actor, Writer, Director and Producer

References