DIANE CHEKLICH – Writer, Director, Editor

Diane Cheklich thanks Ross Perot for launching her film career. It was the late 1990’s and she was working as an information technology consultant for Perot’s company. As a “promising female leader,” they offered her a mentor, she chose someone in TV, who then gave her the name of a cinematographer and told her to go make a short film. She did, and loved it so much she knew she had to find more space in her life for filmmaking.

Making movies quickly became her film school. Diane already has a half dozen shorts and documentaries to her writing and directing credit (including the award-winning experimental, “Late”), many of which have screened in film festivals around the world. She recently acquired two feature film producer credits. TRAP, a psychological thriller, is available nationwide on DVD, and AMSTEROID is in post production.

Diane’s long-standing love of India, and that previous life in the corporate world gave her unique insight into the making of OFFSHORE. “Almost everyone these days has been personally touched by outsourcing, whether as a customer calling into a call center for service or as a worker who has lost their job to an offshore company,” Diane says. “The concept resonates with people on both sides of the ocean.”

Despite filling so many production roles for her feature film debut, Cheklich credits the support of film crews in both India and America, with being able to achieve her dream: to tell an affecting, relevant social drama that shows both sides of this complex issue.

T.S. DAYANANDA - Producer

Producer T.S. Dayananda thought of making a movie about offshoring American jobs three years ago. “This was when many of the IT industries in the US were discovering globalization,” T.S. says. “They had to do it to stay competitive, but the questions it raised intrigued me.”

T.S.’s career was initially in mechanical and aerospace engineering, but it wasn’t long before he turned to his true love: filmmaking. With his strong ties to his native country and new bonds in his adopted home of Michigan, he founded TMS Universal Pictures and became a motion picture distributor of Kannada, India movies in the U.S.

In 2000, T.S. produced the Kannadan blockbuster movie NANNA PREETIYA HUDUGI [“My Favorite Girl”], a love story about an Indian boy who comes to the USA to study and falls in love with an Indian girl born and raised in America. Shot in Michigan and India, the movie ran for twenty-five weeks in Bangalore, and went on to receive the Indian Filmfare Award for Best Direction.

T.S. also produced the Kannada dialect PARIS PRANAYA, a musical feature film shot in Paris, Rome, Spain and India. “Paris” received the prestigious Filmfare Award for Best Picture, as well as Best Music, Script and Singer Awards from Karnataka State. Most recently, T.S. Dayananda produced PREMAYA NAMAHA a love story in Telugu dialect. It was on this movie that he met many of the players who would come together to make OFFSHORE, his very personal tale of corporate war.

DR. HARANATH POLICHERLA - Producer

For Dr. Haranath Policherla, making movies is a passion fed by all else in his life. Haranath is from Tirupati, India, but has lived in Michigan for the past 20 years. His busy Detroit neurology practice and his filmmaker ties to his home country afford him the resources to produce and act in films.

Between high school and graduating medical school, Haranath performed in over thirty plays and directed seven plays. His movie career began with the Silver Jubilee Kannada movie, NANNA PREETIYA HUDUGI. Haranath then played the anti-hero in PARIS PRANAYA, which was awarded Best Picture at the Indian Filmfare Awards. Haranath co-produced and acted in the 2005 Telugu hit, VENNELA, and played an important role in the 2005 Kannada megahit, AMRUTHA DHARE.

Along with fellow OFFSHORE producers T.S. Dayananda and Amarnath Gowda, he also produced PARIS PRAYANA and PREMAYA NAMAHA in which he played the villainous father. He was the executive producer for the Michigan production of TRAP, which OFFSHORE writer-director Diane Cheklich produced. He plays a supporting role in his next production, HOPE, which stars Ramanaidu Garu and Kalyani. HOPE will be distributed throughout India in 2007.

Marty Shea – Producer

Marty Shea has worked on over sixty film and video projects since 1997, including studio pictures, national commercials, and music videos, but it is the world of independent film that he considers home. He produced the Detroit-based indie features, TRAP (which played several festivals including the San Francisco Independent Film Festival) and the recently completed OFFSHORE, both collaborations with producer/director Diane Cheklich.

Marty works primarily as a Production Manager, Production Coordinator and 1st Assistant Director in Chicago and Detroit on projects that have included the multiple-award winning documentary, STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN, THE UPSIDE OF ANGER, and the controversial New Market release DEATH OF A PRESIDENT.

Marty has also directed and produced several short films with collaborator/writer/editor Ian Bonner. The duo's most recent short, 21 CARBS, played at over a dozen festivals including Hollywood DV Fest, IFP's Flyover Zone, and Cinequest's Viewer's Voice Competition, where it landed fifth place out of over 200 films and an internet distribution deal.

AMARNATH GOWDA - Producer

Amarnath Gowda’s production of OFFSHORE reflects his deep ties to both his adopted country of America and his continued participation and celebration of his home country of India. An attorney in Michigan, Amarnath specializes in U.S. immigration and naturalization, and was in fact the first foreign-born lawyer to be licensed in Michigan as special legal Consultant on the laws of India.

Amarnath supports Indians living in American through several professional, social, cultural and charitable organizations. He is Chairman of the Association of Kannada Kootas of America (AKKA), Vice President of the Indian American Friendship Council, President of Vokkaligara Parishat of America, and Board of Director for the Indian League of America. He has won many awards for his legal and cultural activities, and provides voluntary legal service to the Indian community.

When he isn’t working to better the situation of Indian immigrants to America, he is producing films. Along with OFFSHORE producers Dayananda and Policherla, he executive produced Best Picture PARIS PRANAYA, as well as PREMAYA NAMAHA. VENNELA, and TRAP, his first American film. This award-winning team brings their excellence and heart to OFFSHORE, a film that addresses issues social issues that many in their community face.

Gregg B. Mc Neill – Director of Photography

Gregg B. McNeill is a filmmaker and photographer currently residing in Alexandria, VA. Offshore is his fourth feature film as Director Of Photography. He spent the first decade of his freelance career in West Michigan, cutting his teeth on independent features and corporate work. Seeking a bigger market and new challenges, he moved to the D.C. area. He is currently exhibiting his photographic work at The Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria.

Peg Bogema - Co-Writer

Peg Bogema has a low-paying career as a writer and musician with a high-paying hobby as a software development project manager. She knows far too much about offshoring from first hand experience. She is a long-time collaborator with Diane Cheklich, having composed several songs and co-written an earlier screenplay together. Ms. Bogema lives and works in the metropolitan Detroit area.

Chetana Kowshik - Co-Writer, 1st Assistant Director

Chetana Kowshik is a freelance filmmaker from Bombay, India. OFFSHORE is her second Indo-American production, her first being PREMAYA NAMAHA, a 2003 Indian language (Telugu) feature that was shot in Andhra Pradesh, India and Detroit, MI. Ms. Kowshik has been an assistant director on several Hindi films, including the critically acclaimed HAZAARON KHWAISHEIN AISI and SHABD, a drama starring Aishwarya Rai. She is currently in pre-production on a new as-yet-untitled Bollywood production to be directed by acclaimed director Vishal Bhardwaj.

Tushar Unadkat – Production Designer

In past decade, Tushar Unadkat has been an art director in film, fashion and advertising in the USA, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Netherlands, India and Canada. Currently the Creative Director for MUKTA Advertising, Unadkat has also art directed several feature films, including INDIAN FISH IN AMERICAN WATERS, FLAVORS, THE PEACE TREE, and DRY WHISKEY, which got rave reviews in the international film festival circuits. He has worked with OSCAR winning editors and producers and India’s National Award-winning costume designer Neeta Lulla (BOLLYWOOD QUEEN).

In 2005 in his adopted city of Toronto, Tushar was nominated for the Trailblazer Award at the ReelWorld Film Festival, for which he programmed a three-day event with internationally renowned actor and former Indian MP, Ms. Shabana Azmi. Unadkat is a board member for diverse organizations like Theatre Direct Canada, NRI Global and CINESTAR Publishing Inc.

Tushar’s largest contribution to the artistic community is Nouveau IDEA: New Indian Dimension in Entertainment and Arts. He is the Founder and Moderator of the non-profit eGroup that disseminates information, produces and promote Indian Arts with 3000+ members and 30,000+ readers. Most recently, Tushar Unadkat won the nomination for the 2006 New Pioneers Award by Skills for Change for his commendable contribution as an immigrant to the Canadian community.