Abhinandan Sekhri

Sekhri was educated at the Welham Boys' School and then The Doon School in Dehradun, India. He obtained a bachelor's degree in economics from Hansraj College, University of Delhi.^[3][4]

Before founding Newslaundry, he worked as a producer, director and writer in television and film projects, including Highway on my Plate,^[5] which he co-produced and directed; and news-satire show Gustaakhi Maaf.^[6] He was also a co-founder and trustee in Delhi-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) PCRF.^[7] He was the executive producer for Chase, a documentary series by ScoopWhoop. He regularly delivers lectures and hosts panel discussions on journalism, RTI, and the importance and independence of media.

In April 1996, he started working as a correspondent for TV Today Network.^[8] He reported for Newstrack, a weekly current affairs programme, and for the evening bulletin of Aaj Tak, along with morning show Good Morning Today.

He worked as a camera assistant^[9] on Mira Nair’s award-winning feature film Monsoon Wedding which was a Mirabai production. Monsoon Wedding went on to win the 2002 British Independent Film Award for Best Foreign Independent Film – Foreign Language.^[10] He then worked as Assistant Director^[11] on Filhaal (2000), an Indian feature film produced by Jhamu Sugandh and directed by Meghna Gulzar.

He produced, scripted and co-directed documentary film Chadar along with Prashant Sareen on a winter trade route in the Zanskar valley of Ladakh. Chadar went on to win the Best Travel Documentary Award at the EVEO Spring Fest, 2000 at San Francisco^[12] and received a Special Jury Prize at Okinawa, Japan in 2001.^[12] He went on to produce and direct several other documentary films including Goonj, a six part series on innovations in agriculture and Daring to Dream, a documentary film about three children in rural Rajasthan. He co-directed and co-scripted documentary films Shared Spaces^[13] (a film on religious diversity) and Temples of Water^[14] (a documentary film on the water harvesting movement in Rajasthan). Temples of Water was screened at the UNESCO - PSBT Documentary film festival in Delhi in August 2003.^[15]

In 2000, Sekhri co-founded Small Screen,^[16] a^[17] Delhi-based agency that provides audio video production services for television, digital and film-based platforms. Sekhri was the Chief script writer for Double Take and Gustakhi Maaf,^[6] a political satire show that aired on NDTV. The show won awards at the Indian Television Academy Awards (2004) and the Indian Telly Awards (2004).^[18]

He was the producer, director and scriptwriter for Highway on my Plate^[5] which was a travel and food show that ran from 2007 to 2011 on NDTV Good Times. The show won the 'Best Travel Show' at the Indian Telly Awards, 2008.^[19] In 2013, Sekhri co-produced Jai Hind with Rocky and Mayur,^[20] a show about life in the Armed Forces. He was also the director of the 2014 six-part series, Vital Stats of India^[21] on the History Channel, that presented information about India and Indians.

In 2012, Sekhri, along with Madhu Trehan, Roopak Kapoor and Prashant Sareen, founded Newslaundry, a media critique, news and current affairs website. The news organisation does not carry advertisements and runs on a subscription-based model.^[22] Newslaundry's Manisha Pande, along with Sandeep Pai won the 2015 Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for investigative reporting. Abhinandan is currently the full-time CEO of Newslaundry.