“I’m Prabanand Chandrasekaran, a writer, director, producer and former academic. I was born in Coimbatore but grew up across many parts of India because my father worked in a government job that required frequent transfers. Moving constantly exposed me to different cultures and perspectives at a young age, something that later shaped the way I see and tell stories.

My fascination with images began when I was seven. My father owned a Yashica Electro 35 camera he had brought from Dubai. He kept it carefully out of my reach, worried I might damage it, but that only made me more curious. I would stare at it and imagine the stories it could capture. Photography slowly became a hobby, though I didn’t know then how deeply it would influence my life.

When I was sixteen, my father requested a transfer to Madras because he believed it was the best city in India for academics. Chennai soon became home. Even when work later took me elsewhere, I always found myself returning to the city.

After graduating, I joined a software company in Chennai as a programmer in 2002. Within three months I realized a routine desk job wasn’t for me. Around that time I was sent to Periyar University in Salem for a six month onsite project. During long night walks across the quiet campus, I befriended a security guard. One evening I showed him my father’s camera and explained how film photography needed good lighting. Without hesitation he switched on all the floodlights across the campus for a few minutes. The entire place suddenly lit up. Buildings glowed, lawns shone and rabbits froze in the grass. I photographed everything I could. In that moment I realized this was what I truly wanted to do.

Soon after, I quit my software job and enrolled in the MSc Electronic Media program at the University of Madras. My family was not thrilled about me leaving a stable career, but I knew I had found my path.

During my studies I directed short films that won awards, and soon began working with Chennai Doordarshan and Vijay TV. I scripted and directed several programs and live shows, learning how every department in a media organization worked. Later, the 2004 tsunami became a turning point in my work. For my final project I made a documentary about displaced fishermen near Chennai who were fighting to reclaim their land. That project led to collaborations with organizations such as UNESCO and the National Disaster Management Authority. While I also made corporate films, documentaries fascinated me because they allowed deeper engagement with people and real stories.

Life took another turn when I began teaching Visual Communication, initially as a temporary arrangement that grew into a full time academic career. I eventually became Head of the Department and later an Assistant Professor. Even while teaching, I stayed connected to cinema as a script analyst, production controller and publicist, and helped organize the Chennai International Film Festival for five years.

Nearly fifteen years later, something unexpected happened. During a drive from Coimbatore Airport to Ooty, a cab driver asked if I wanted to listen to local music but instead played a documentary called Music of the Mountains about Nilgiris tribal music. To my surprise, it was a film I had directed years earlier. He told me it had been broadcast widely on local cable networks and shared across CDs and pen drives. When I told him I was the director, he did not believe me at first. In that moment I realized my work had quietly reached people I never imagined.

That experience pushed me to return to filmmaking full time. I resigned from academia, started my production house and began working on my first feature film.

Chennai has shaped me deeply, academically, creatively and personally. Having grown up across many parts of India, I have seen difficult social realities, but Chennai has always felt balanced and inclusive. I love the city’s language, its film, music and book festivals, the Anna Centenary Library, its art spaces and the long ECR coastline filled with memories.

I have also seen the resilience of Chennaiites, especially during the 2015 floods when people came together through mobile networks and social media to help one another. It remains one of the most inspiring examples of community solidarity I have witnessed.

For me, Chennai is the place that shaped my journey as a storyteller.”