Umang hails from the small town of Jetpur in the Western region of Saurashtra in Gujarat. Born to a Government clerk Father who was also a passionate folk-art performer and a housewife Mother who imparted the values that Umang holds dearest to himself, little did Umang know that he shall one day study Film Making at a premier Film School!
Umang made his first stage appearance playing a 7 year old girl in a street-play and at 11, he took his Father's place singing folk-Garbas (Cultural Gujarati Folk-dance/singing Performance) across villages in Saurashtra. A chance audition in a tele-film introduced him to the rural Gujarati film industry where he essayed the roles of junior artist to laundry boy to caterer to spot-boy to assistant director to executive producer. He also took on wedding photography, undertaking a journey that took him to almost every village across Saurashtra. But it was when Umang moved to the larger town of Rajkot, that he got introduced to larger Cinema halls and Hollywood films.
Having realised that his professional ambition matches his personal passion, Umang applied to Film Schools but his lack of exposure to film grammar and complete lack of orientation in the English language, resulted in a painful rejection! But it was his love for Storytelling that gave him the resilience to apply non-stop for 5 years running and it was then that he finally secured admission to SRFTI.
Not only that, his first academic short-film "Meenakshi" got recognised at Indian Film Festival of Melbourne and many other prestigious film festivals. Umang contributed in many departments like, direction, creative producing, production design and "Tea-Maker". The hand-made tea of Umang is talk-of-the town on any film-sets.
Today, the boy who hadn't watched a single non-Hindi film until the age of 21, idolizes Bergman, Fincher, Pa. Ranjith, Vetrimaaran, Anjali Menon and many other masters. Umang, whose name means 'Joy', dreams of telling Stories seeped in the folk culture his Father introduced him to while led by Female protagonists that remind him of his Mother
