Upendra Sidhaye

Upendra Sidhaye (born 8 October 1980), born and brought up in Pune, is a screenplay and story writer in Indian Film industry (Bollywood). Upendra won honors and admiration with his debut film Mumbai Meri Jaan(2008). Upendra and Yogesh Vinayak Joshi collectively received the Filmfare Awards (2009) and Cine Blitz award of best screenplay for Mumbai Meri Jaan. In addition to being a screenplay writer and assistant director, Upendra also made a guest appearance as a Mall receptionist in this movie. This pair was also nominated for the 2009 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

With more inclination towards direction, Upendra started participating in workshops related to acting and direction, after completing his graduation in Commerce. Upendra did his post graduation in Mass Communication from Pune University. While pursuing his post graduation, Upendra started grooming himself in theatre activities. He joined theatre group viz. Maitree, Pune that staged Marathi plays like Sankraman. In conjunction, Upendra also participated in a prestigious trophy named Purushottam Karandak to direct and act in a marathi play viz. Enigma. This play won the team a silver cup and Upendra received award for best direction and acting.

In 2003, Upendra along with his coterie released a 20-minute short film viz. 3 Khwaab. Upendra himself wrote and directed this film. Later, Upendra again wrote and directed another short film called Waiting Room. Following this, he worked as an in-house writer for UTV Motion Pictures starting 2005 and was then offered a prominent break by Nishikant Kamat to co-write screenplay along with Yogesh Vinayak Joshi for his film Mumbai Meri Jaan. This movie had an esteemed star cast including Paresh Rawal, Kay Kay Menon, Irrfan Khan and R. Madhavan . Upendra was also an assistant director for Mumbai Meri Jaan.

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