Sanjay Vaidya

Sanjay Vaidya
Sanjay Vaidya at Ahmedabad, 2013
Born	1966 (age 57–58) Dhari, Amreli, Gujarat, India
Nationality	Indian
Occupation(s)	Photographer, Filmmaker, Publisher Photojournalist
Years active	1985 – present
Website	sanjayvaidya.in

Introduction

Sanjay Vaidya (Gujarati: સંજય વૈદ્ય) is an Indian photographer, filmmaker, publisher and a teacher. He started his career as a photographer in 1983 as a freelancer and later in 1988 he joined Gujarat Samachar as a photojournalist. He started The35mm, his own media house in 1985 which initially worked in architecture and interior design photography. He worked in the Hindi Film Industry in Mumbai, Maharashtra for several years as a lensman.

Later in his career after moving back to Ahmedabad, Gujarat he started teaching at NIFT, Gandhinagar. In the year 2003, Sanjay started publishing Gujarati books from his media house The35mm. He has also been a creative director at Design Development Academy, School of Design in Ahmedabad. And since 2014 he has joined Coconut Media Box which organizes concerts, multilingual plays, produces and distributes Gujarati and Hindi films, artist management and various other entertainment activities.

Personal life

He is married to the renowned Gujarati writer Kaajal Oza Vaidya and has a son named Tathaagat.

Career

Photography

Sanjay began his photography career in 1983. As a photographer in Mumbai, Maharashtra he has worked with Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Anupam Kher, Asha Bhosle, Gulzar, Manoj Bajpayee, Tabu, Shabana Azmi, Sanjeev Kapoor and many other celebrities.

As a photojournalist he has done photo stories with former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sachin Tendulkar, Morari Bapu, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Purushottam Upadhyay, Ghulam Ali, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pt. Jasraj, Pt. Ravi Shankar, Pt. Kishan Maharaj, Pt. Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Pt. Vishwamohan Bhatt and many such world renowned personalities.

His photo exhibitions have been conducted in various cities like Ahmedabad, Vadodara, New Delhi, Kolkata and Coimbatore.

Film & Television

He has worked as a lensman with Hansal Mehta on his debut film …Jayate, a part of the Indian Panorama 1999-2000 at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Hyderabad. This was later followed by Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar!! (2000) a bittersweet migrant tale set in Mumbai.

He also worked on the television show Khana Khazana which launched the television career of celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor on Zee TV. He was a lensman on the television show AnuGoonj which starred Irrfan in a leading role as well as a Doordarshan show called Akhir Kaun?, directed by Niraj Pathak.

He has also worked on various Gujarati films, television shows and documentary films as well.

New Endeavours

Sanjay started publishing Gujarati books in 2003, starting with the very famous and bestsellers e-series. He has published photobooks on various Gujarati writers like Gunvant Shah, Suresh Dalal, Vinod Bhatt, Chandrakant Bakshi, Tarak Mehta, Ramesh Parekh, Tushar Shukla, Ankit Trivedi, Father Vallece, Rajesh Vyas Miskeen and Swami Satchidanand. He has also published other bestsellers like Thank You Pappa, Tran, Bapu, Mari Rangyatra, Kanku No Sooraj etc.

He has joined an Ahmedabad based media and entertainment giant, Coconut Media Box which is into production and distribution of Gujarati and Hindi films, concerts, theatre plays, artist management etc. Sanjay directed two music videos, Taal Tandava and Shyam Rang, with the very well-known Coconut artist Kirtidan Gadhavi which went viral on social media and has received more than 2 million views on YouTube.

He also a teacher of visual communications and is associated with various institutions in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.