Tanuj Chopra is the showrunner and director of Emmy award winning series DELHI CRIME S2 on NETFLIX.
Previously an indie filmmaker, Tanuj wrote, directed, and produced 4 grand jury prize winning features including his first, PUNCHING AT THE SUN a gritty movie about teens coming of age in post 9/11 Queens. The 16mm classic was the first South Asian American film to premiere at Sundance and is currently available on the Criterion Collection. Variety called the fiery debut “a display of talent that’s distinctive, original and iconoclastic.”
Tanuj loves to create, write, direct, and sometimes put the camera on his shoulder. He’s currently developing an American high school series adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel DEVDAS with Meera Menon set up at SEARCHLIGHT. He’s also in post on a short documentary about Brown University’s dynamo point guard Shayna Mehta with support from the CENTER FOR ASIAN AMERICAN MEDIA.
His other award winning titles include CHEE AND T, GRASS and STAYCATION – a totally improvised dark comedy feature about a crap relationship. He directed, DP’d and edited the no-budget feature that won the 2018 Grand Jury Prize at the LA film festival.
Chopra holds a BA in Art Semiotics from Brown University and an MFA in film direction from Columbia University where he was awarded the Dean’s Fellowship. He was selected to the 2018 Sundance Episodic Lab, the Fox Global Filmmaker Initiative and the Sony TV directors lab. A dedicated mentor, Tanuj has taught at Columbia University’s film program as well as run production workshops for at-risk youth in the Bay Area.