Sudhanshu Saria, 40, from Siliguri has carved a niche in the Bollywood film industry.

Last Friday, Ulajh, a film directed by him and starring Gulshan Devaiah and Janhvi Kapoor, was released in the theatres. This is the second film directed by Saria in Bollywood.

“I am from Siliguri and love north Bengal. I have been to my hometown and plan to visit the place again. The idyllic landscapes of north Bengal have always attracted me and I love to spend some days at home,” Sudhanshu said over the phone from Mumbai.

An alumnus of Don Bosco School in Siliguri, Sudhanshu later went to a school in Dehradun and joined the Ithaca College in New York where he studied mass communication and journalism.

“At that time, I came to know that there are academic courses on filmmaking and some of my friends were studying it. Gradually, I developed an attraction for filmmaking and joined Hollywood where I worked for seven years,” said the filmmaker.

He then joined Bollywood in Mumbai.

“I started making short films and in 2015, I directed a full-fledged Hindi film Loev,” said Sudhanshu.

The film starred Dhruv Ganesh and Shiv Pandit, along with others, and is a tale of two friends and their trip to the Western Ghats. The film was acclaimed at different film festivals.

Sudhanshu continued to direct films and in 2021, he was conferred an award at the 67th National Film Awards for a psychological thriller short-feature film, Knock Knock Knock.

The film, starring Bengali actor Santilal Mukherjee and some others, was shot in north Bengal.

“Some people from the region worked in the film. I believe north Bengal has huge potential as a shooting site,” said the film director.

Talking about his latest venture and Janhvi Kapoor who has acted in the film, Sudhanshu said: “Janhvi is a very interesting and hard-working actress to work with. As soon as she came across the script of the movie and learned that I was directing it, she reached out to me.”

Rishi, his younger brother, said: “His achievement is entirely his own. He has not taken any help from the family and has always been creative and firm in his ideas.”

Rishi, who is into the tea industry — their family owns tea estates — said Sudhanshu had never thought of joining the family business. “He has always wanted to make films, (he) started production and then moved into writing and film direction,” said Rishi.