The journey of Sakett Saawhney in the field of production
Producer Sakett Saawhney, has had quite a journey in showbiz. What started with a stint as an assistant director led to him becoming a film and television Producer. “Early on 1996-97, I worked with Vivek Agnihotri as an assistant director on many episodic projects such as ‘Saturday Suspense’, ‘Love Story’ and ‘X Zone’ and learnt a lot under him. He is a great technician and has an eye for detail. I owe my knowledge of direction to him,” he says.
This was followed by him working on major TV shows. “I was an EP on a Lawrence Desouza film which unfortunately never made it to the theaters. I moved to Balaji as an Ep in 2003 and left in late 2009 as a GM production of television. I gathered great experience under the guidance of Ekta ma’am, while working on all major hit shows like ‘Kkusum’, ‘Kasautii Zindagii Kay’, ‘Kavyanjali’, ‘Kasturi’ and many others and also a film ‘C Kkompany’ as an EP,” he says.
He adds, “In the early 2010 I formed a company called Flying Turtle Films with Shabir Ahluwalia and produced 2 Daily soaps ‘Ganga Ki Dheej’ for Sahara One and ‘Savitri’ for Life Ok… Also set up and produced the Bilingual film (Hindi and Telugu) Zanjeer (remake of the 1973 blockbuster) with Reliance Entertainment and Late Amit Mehra, starring South Super Star Ram Charan, Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt and Mahie Gill and directed by Apoorva Lakhia.. The film, however, didn’t fare well at the Box office and life had other plans. My mentor Ekta ma’am came to my rescue as an angel in disguise. I got back to Balaji as the Head of Motion Picture Production and was part of films like ‘Ek Villain’, ‘Ragini MMS2’, ‘Kya Kool 3’, ‘Azhar’ and a few other projects as an Associate Producer.”
He decided to take some time off. “Two years back, I took a sabbatical, having worked for almost 2 decades. Recently, I got back on my feet to being a producer albeit independently and I am presently producing a web series for ALT Balaji, which is currently in pre-production stages. I am simultaneously developing content for the digital platform, films and am working on a biopic,” he says, adding, “My long-term goal is to be a content producer for both digital and films.”
