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Award winning director, writer and Emmy nominated cinematographer Maninder "Indy" Saini grew up straddling two worlds, her American home base in rural Pennsylvania, and her dad's homeland in Punjab, India. With her first passport at the age of 3, a desire to understand different perspectives and a passion for travel was planted, inspiring her creative journey as a filmmaker.
Her drive for stories with deep female friendships and finding hope in unexpected places sparked Indy's directorial debut "The Lesson," a short film about a middle-aged Latinx woman who secretly helps the prostitute upstairs escape from her pimp, garnering international awards including Best US Narrative at the Women's International Film Festival in Miami. This success created an opportunity in the Women in Film mentoring program, during which she shadowed director/actor Charlie Haid from pre-production through post on the hit televisions shows "Criminal Minds" and "ER".
Combining her creative mission and her passion for motorcycle riding, Indy directed and produced the documentary "Women in the Front Seat." Captured while braving her first solo cross country trip, the film paints the diverse landscape and inspiring stories of women who not only drive their motorcycles but drive their lives.
Fueled by that project, Indy wrote the feature screenplay "Slider," a coming of age story that takes us deep into the high speeds and defiantly windswept hair of the women's motorcycle world. The script was selected as a finalist at the Sundance Writing Lab and the NYWIFT Meryl Streep Writing Lab. During that time, she also wrote and produced the socially relevant dramatic short thriller "The Hideout," which screened at numerous festivals with honorable mentions and is now available on Amazon Prime.
Indy's documentary work as cinematographer took her to the arctic to film "Ice Bear," a National Geographic Wild special about the affects of climate change on polar bears for which she received an Emmy Nomination. As well as to Calcutta, India, to film "Soma Girls," a short doc about educating the children of sex workers, that aired on PBS.
Dedicated and driven regardless of the pursuit, Indy also developed technical prowess as a Digital Imaging Technician (DIT) learning 'all things camera.' Her extensive skills and ability to excel under great pressure landed her work with master storytellers such as directors Ang Lee and David Lynch, and legendary cinematographers John Toll, ASC and Rodrigo Prieto, ASC. Her credits in this realm include major Hollywood movies such as, "Harriet," "Gemini Man," "A Wrinkle In Time," and "Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,"and television shows including "Twin Peaks" (2017) and "Arrested Development."
Indy's professional career sped out of the gate directly following her BA in theatre and philosophy from Smith College in Massachusetts, when she launched the multi-media all-new works theatre company DreamWeaver Productions in NYC. Focused on promoting diverse new voices, Indy directed and produced 5 seasons of provocative and probing shows off off Broadway. Indy's love for theatre, crossed the coasts when she directed Neil Labute's "The Way We Get By" for 3KO Broadway Theatre Company in West Hollywood, CA. The play was reviewed by the LA Times highlighting some of her storytelling strengths: "director Maninder Saini's thoughtful staging cleverly links each play," and by Backstage West: "Directed by Maninder Saini, each work ends on sturdy ground, thanks to performances that seem misguided at first and then deliver their sucker punches. Even more noticeably, the actors are superbly cast."
In pursuit of the next adventure-filled chapter as an avid traveler and lover of nature, between projects Indy can be found hiking a mountain in a far off country or at home in Los Angeles paddling around in her kayak.
