Background
Bhandal was born in Slough, England and is of Sikh heritage.
director screenwriter film producer
Bhandal was born in Slough, England and is of Sikh heritage.
He received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Manchester and two M.A.s in Film & Creative Writing at the University of Brunel in Middlesex.
Straight after Brunel he wrote, produced, directed & edited his first short film in 1991. Bhandal continued writing after his short film completing a number of screenplays and dabbling in novel writing. In 2009 he decided to return to the film business proper.
In May 2009 Bhandal set up the film production company Kirlian Pictures Limited and began packaging and presenting the feature script Penumbra.
The size of the budget for this first feature led to pressure from Investors to hand over the directorial reigns to someone with a track record. Bhandal chose not to part with the project and instead set about developing a lower budget feature called Interview with a Hitman.
Bhandal shot Interview with a Hitman in 18 days in August 2011 on location in Newcastle and Bucharest. The film had its market premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2012 and has gone on to sell in Major territories worldwide.
Interview with a Hitman was released theatrically in the United Kingdom on 20 July 2012.
lieutenant was released in the United States on 5 March 2013. Bhandal is currently working on his second feature Penumbra.