Neil Sadwelkar, based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) India. Was born and raised right here in Mumbai. Both his parents were well-known artists (painters) - Vijoo and Baburao Sadwelkar.

Neil spends most of his waking hours working as a consultant on data and workflows for movies and Television and is an occasional editor, teacher and writer.

At the present, he runs a small Data and Workflow Services company called 'Digital Dada' which is a trusted name in data and workflow for feature names by some of the largest film companies - Yash Raj Films, Dharma Productions, Red Chillies, Excel Entertainment, Bhansali Productions and many others.

Over the past 7 years this has grown into a premier digital data and workflow services company having serviced movies from Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Dhoom 3, to Fan, Sultan, Raees, Tiger Zinda Hai, Padmaavat and many others under production. As part of this Neil now travels extensively to help Indian film-makers and cinematographers come to grips with digital technology.

In his spare time, Neil conducts workshops on editing at the Film course at Whistling Woods International, FTII (Film & Television Institute of India, Pune), SRFTI (Satyajit Ray Film & TV Institute, Kolkata), MET (Mumbai Educational Trust), Digital Academy, and others.

On Facebook he has a Tech info and news page - Neil Sadwelkar's Tech corner.

He sometimes posts on his blog on his musings on matters digital.

Neil is also one of the hosts in the Creative Cow Final Cut Pro forum and other forums there. And maintains web pages on Apple Final Cut Pro and on the film Digital Intermediates or DI. He sometimes writes for 'dead tree' publications - Studio Systems, Digital Studio - on various aspects of post-production.

In the years before his current occupation, he has been engaged in various positions and occupations as below. Most recent first. 

Prime Focus

For a brief period, 2010-11 Neil moved on from Pixion and went to Prime Focus - the huge international post-production and visual effects and 2D-3D facility with offices in Khar, London, Parel, Los Angeles, Hyderabad, Vancouver, Goa, Chennai, Goregaon and other places.

At Prime Focus he was Head of Technical Operations with an aim to improve workflow and processes at their Mumbai facility. As part of this he supervised StarTV's upgrade from SD to HD and trained in-house editors and technicians on workflow and technology.

Independent work on the side

As an independent consultant, Neil also helps people out with technology and DI projects, 'Stanley ka Dabba', 'Nobel Chor', 'Sahib, Biwi aur Gangster', 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist', 'Omkara' and many others.

As a hobby, he dabbles with DVD authoring and has authored the commercial DVDs of several films - 'English, August', 'Split Wide Open', 'Don', 'Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd', 'Rock On!!', 'Luck By Chance', '1971'. 'Game', 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' and some others.

Pixion

From 2004, Neil was a technical consultant for the setup and operations of a large post house in Mumbai. Its called Pixion. It is part of Century Communication. Pixion is a complete end-to-end film and video post setup - with a Spirit 4k Datacines, Northlight scanner, Quantel eQ and iQ and Autodesk finishing systems - smoke and flame. 

And, of course, editing systems from Avid and Apple(FCP). Pixion also has hundreds of CGI and VFX systems.In his years at Pixion, Neil has been associated with film Digital Intermediate or DI projects. About 160 odd films had their DI supervised by Neil at Pixion, Mumbai.
Mostly Indian films and like - Barsaat, Chocolate, Don, Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd, Namastey London, No Smoking Jaane Tu ya Jaane naa, DevD, Rock On!!, Luck By Chance, Broken Thread, Golmaal (all three), Dabanng, Fashion, to name just a few. There were also some overseas films.

He also supervised the Pixion post and visual effects facilities at Chennai and very briefly at London.

Editing independently

In 2006 Neil, along with old friend Anand Subaya, co-edited a Hindi feature film called 'Don', Produced by Ritesh Sidhwani, Directed by Farhan Akhtar, and featuring Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, and others.

Before that he was associated as "Technical Consultant" with a FCP setup to edit a real Hindi feature film called "Lakshya", directed by Farhan Akhtar. And another feature called "Akoori" directed by Homi Adajania. The film was later called "Being Cyrus". Both these happened in 2004, a time when editing film in an FCP system was not very prevalent in India.

RDP

In the early 2000s, Neil helped a leading ad film production house Ramesh Deo Production set up their in-house editing facility. And then edited some hundreds of TV commercials for them between 2001 and 2007. Directed by Abhinay Deo, arguably one of India's most prolific, accomplished, and sought after Ad film director-producer.
In this period, some ad films edited by him even made it to the short list at the Cannes Ad film awards and won other awards. And awarded at the Times Asia Pacific Advertising Awards 2003 (for the Hitachi Electric Bill commercial) and at the IDPA awards 2005 (Indian Oil Elephants Commercial)

Has lost count of how many TV commercials he edited, but from studying TDS certificates he estimates these to be around 300.

Script Shop and Squirkle

In 1996 Neil helped a school friend, Adi Pocha set up an Avid Media Composer editing system for his ad film business. Initially he trained Adi's assistants - Sanjay Sami, Anand Subaya, and Farhan Akhtar - but then stayed on and edited hundreds of ad films and TV shows.

Independent film work

In the late eighties and early nineties, he produced and co-directed (with wife, Nivedita) several documentaries. On non-conventional energy sources, building of a bridge, Radioactivity, Astronomy, and other such.

Sound recording

When the TV boom happened in the nineties, Neil worked with old friends Indrajeet Neogi and Dileep Subramaniam and did sync sound. Indian film industry term for sound recording on location that is not overdubbed. Between 1992-98... he did sync sound for
over 200 TV shows - soaps, game shows, talk shows, corporates, ads.

Film intern

While at the Nehru Centre, he worked as one of the sound recordists for a long-form film series "Bharat ki Chhap". Created by Chhandita Mukherjee and telecast on Indian Television.

He also interned as Asst. Director (the guy who writes continuity and claps) and Edit Asst. (the guy who winds reels and syncs sound) for the same - on Steenbeck and other "manual nonlinear" devices. Yes, those were the first "nonlinear" editing systems.

The editors on that project were Reena Mohan, Renu Saluja, and Dipti Bhalla. He watched them closely and tried to learn their craft. And the DoPs were Anil Mehta, Inderjit Bansal, Ranjan Palit, Fernando Cabral, Murlidhar, Mohanan, some of the best this country has produced.

Nehru Planetarium and Nehru Centre

Took up his first job at the Nehru Planetarium as a maintenance person - to help repair the exotic electronic systems they have there. While at the planetarium, Neil assisted on an animation film on Astronomy. Also worked on the production of over a dozen "sky-shows" on Astronomy. Nearly half a million people see these shows each year.

At Nehru Centre, Neil eventually became Senior Scientist at the Planetarium, and then Technical Manager of a museum on Indian history - the Discovery of India at Nehru Centre, Mumbai. Eventually, he worked at Nehru Centre for 16 years - 1982 to 1998. In those years, he worked closely with a college friend, Nivedita who also worked there till recently. They married in 1987.

Schooling

Neil studied at the St Xavier's High School in South Bombay and at Wilson College. After school, Neil tried unsuccessfully to get admission to the FTII at Pune - India's premier film school. Didn't manage to get in to FTII, so he ended up doing a Masters degree in Physics with specialization in Electronics.

Back to Neil's FCP page

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mail me to know more or just with your comments --  Updated 25 April 2018