Biography
Born in India, a graduate of Bombay University, Yale and UCLA, Krishna Shah is the first Asian-American writer/director/producer who has won critical acclaim on Broadway and in Hollywood.
On Broadway he directed and co-authored, with Alan Paton, a South African play, "Sponono", and adapted and directed the Off-Broadway production of Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore's 'The King Of The Dark Chamber', which ran for a year and received two OBIE Awards.
Also Off-Broadway he produced and adapted "Kalidasa's Shakuntala" at St. Mark's Theatre, which ran for two months. He directed the second company of Athol Fugard's "Bloodknot" for Lucille Lortel, which ran for six months. He also directed Milton Hood Ward's "Kindly Monies" at New Arts Theatre in London. In Hollywood, his feature-length screenplays include April Morning (1988) for Samuel Goldwyn Jr. and Rivals (1972), which he ' produced and directed for Avco-Embassy, starring Joan Hackett and Robert Klein.
Shah's The River Niger (1976) starring Cicely Tyson, James Earl Jones and Louis Gossett Jr. garnered many awards, including Best Direction at the Virgin Island International Film Festival and a Golden Globe nomination. He wrote and directed Shalimar (1978) starring Rex Harrison, Sylvia Miles and John Saxon, and co-wrote and directed Cinema Cinema (1979)' (Director's Fortnight at Cannes). He also co-wrote, directed and produced American Drive-in (1985), released by Vestron, and Hard Rock Zombies (1984), a cult-classic released by Cannon.
In the last few years Shah has been involved with films about India. His presentation of Harish Saluja's The Journey (1997)' won the most popular film award at the Florida Film Festival and his film of Nagesh Kukunoor's Hyderabad Blues (1998) became on of the largest-grossing independent films in India.
Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama (1993), a $12-million animation film, was an entry at Cardiff Animation Festival, Montreal Film Festival and premiered at the Lucca Animation Film Festival, Italy in 2000. It won the "Best Animation Film" of the Year: 2001 award at Santa Clarita International Family Film Festival, and was one of nine contenders for the feature animation Oscar at the 2002 Academy Awards
Shah has an enviable track record as an entrepreneur in Hollywood. As President and CEO of Double Helix Films, a public company, and then Carnegie Film Group, Shah brought in professionalism and gave the company an aggressive stance in the industry. From 1984-90, under his supervision, the company developed and produced several films: Kiss Daddy Goodnight (1987) (Uma Thurman's first film), Warriors (1994) (William Shatner and Michael Paré), Cease Fire (1985) (Don Johnson), Matewan (1987) (James Earl Jones), _Mob Story (1986)_ (qv') (Margot Kidder) and the all-time horror cult favorites _Sleepaway Camp II (1988)_ and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989).
As President of his own company, MR Inc.--a full0fledged production/distribution/foreign sales company--he handled many films, such as Rubberface (1981) (Jim Carrey's first film), Omega Cop (1990) and Karate Cop (1991) (David Carradine and Adam West), Chinatown Connection (1990) (Bruce Le and Lee Majors), Dust to Dust (1994) (Willie Nelson and Robert Vaughn), Little Noises (1991) (Tatum O'Neal), Fun (1994) (prize winner at Sundance), among others.
Shah wrote and/or directed episodes of several television shows, including The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), Love, American Style (1969), The Flying Nun (1967) and The Six Million Dollar Man (1974).
Shah is a member of the Directors branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, USA and has served as an Assistant Secretary to The Directors Guild of America. He has also served as an alternate Co-Chair of the Asian-American Committee of Directors Guild of America. He is a member of The Writers Guild.
