Anshul Chauhan

Anshul Chauhan (born 1986) is an Indian film director, producer, and ex-animator in Japan. He is best known for directing films such as December (2022), Kontora (2019), and Bad Poetry Tokyo (2018). Beyond directing, Chauhan has also contributed as an animator to projects such as Final Fantasy XV, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Tron: Uprising.

Early life and education
Chauhan was born in Mainpuri, Agra in Northern India in 1986, one day after his grandfather had passed away. His father was a "strict military man" who schooled Chauhan at a military academy in Rajasthan. Chauhan went to university and studied geography. He later developed an interest in animation and Japanese history after being influenced by his favourite anime, Naruto.

Career
After graduating, Chauhan became an animator in 2006 and animated shows such as BBC's children's show Everything's Rosie and Disney's Tron: Uprising. He was also part of the production of Delhi Safari. After relocating to Tokyo in September 2011, He joined Square Enix and animated for video games such as Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III along with animating TV shows such as Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

In 2016, Chauhan founded Kowatanda Films, his own production company, to start directing films. Initially, he only made short films. He later went back to India to direct his first feature film with no intention to return to Japan, however, when he finished, he lost the film due to a faulty hard disk drive. He later moved back to Japan and directed his first feature film, Bad Poetry Tokyo (2018), which won him the Best Narrative Feature Film at the Venice Film Week and the Grand Prix for Best Film at the Brussels Independent Film Festival.

Chauhan's second feature film, Kontora (2019), was the first Japanese release to win the Grand Prix Award for Best Film at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. He stated that his inspiration for Kontora was from war diaries of Japanese soldiers.

In 2022, Chauhan directed his third feature film, December (2022), featuring Shogen of Brillante Mendoza’s Gensan Punch. December was nominated for the Kim Jiseok award at the 27th Busan International Film Festival.