About me

Anish Akshay Chauhan is a Leicester/London based writer, director and filmmaker whose work weaves heritage, folklore, and psychological storytelling through an oft Indo-surrealist lens; exploring the intersections of identity, memory, and diaspora with a focus on South Asian & British cultural narratives.

Anish's work has been recognised by Roman Coppola's Decentralized Pictures, where his feature concept, Belgrave, won Silver and Bronze Prizes in Decentralized Pictures Screenplay Competitions (2022); and achieved a % community score in the Onchain Base Creators Award (2025). He later evolved the project into Diwaleen in Belgrave, a novella (edited by Aparna Kumar, DGA) which was shortlisted by BBC Film Development Executives. His earlier collaboration with Leicester Museums, The Ellis Sisters of Belgrave, laid the foundation for this expanding creative universe.

A Postgraduate Masters Scholar at Central Saint Martins, Anish wrote and directed Faith in Fabric (2023), a short narrative film examining Leicester's South Asian fast-fashion industry, successfully screened at a University of the Arts London (Central Saint Martins) Performance Department showcase, and at Leicester Film Festival (2023) where it made Official Selection. He is the founder and creative director of Belgrave Bookstore, a literary and film production company.

Alongside his narrative work, Anish has produced commercial and heritage content, and currently works as a Script Reader and Development Assistant for London-based international feature film production & sales company, Twenty-Nine Palms Entertainment, and as a Film & TV Teacher at Pauline Quirke Academy Loughborough. Deeply embedded in Leicester's cultural landscape, he continues to build partnerships across the film, literature, and heritage sectors, developing projects that challenge, reimagine, and reclaim narratives of belonging.

Having previously acted in various short films, in 2024, whilst auditioning for a lead role in the British Pakistani, Manchester-set feature, Apnas, Anish secured major acting representation with Manchester-based, Morello Cherry Actors Agency; and has since gone on to audition for lead roles in film & TV.