A look at Warren Pereira’s unscripted journey across sport, cinema and industry

Warren Pereira’s career resists easy categorisation. Over nearly three decades, he has moved across disciplines and continents—from competitive sport in Mumbai to scientific study in North America, from independent filmmaking in Los Angeles to building manufacturing businesses in India.

What connects these chapters, Pereira has often said, is a preference for systems grounded in discipline, accountability and measurable outcomes. Born in Mumbai in 1976, Pereira was drawn early to competitive swimming. While attending Bombay Scottish School, he trained at Otters Club and became a three-time Junior National Swimming Champion, competing nationally during his teens. The routines of elite sport—repetition, incremental improvement and personal responsibility—later shaped his approach to filmmaking and business. In his late teens, Pereira moved abroad, completing high school at Appleby College in Toronto, Canada, before relocating to the United States. At Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, he studied biology, focusing on ecology, physiology and field research. Though committed to science, he became increasingly interested in communicating complex subjects to broader audiences. That interest led him to cinema. Pereira earned a second undergraduate degree in digital media and film at the Art Institute of Portland and began directing short films that screened internationally. His early work—including Lacking Lewis, Who’s Good Looking?, Superhero Talent, Lovely Coffee, Salt and Silicone, Moving Higher and The Fence—was modest in scale but formally precise, favouring observation over spectacle.

Alongside independent filmmaking, Pereira worked in advertising, gaining experience in commercial storytelling and production discipline. In 2012, he was part of the creative team behind the ‘Hinglish Project’ with DDB, which won a Cannes Gold Lion. Despite this success, he continued to prioritise independent and issue-driven projects over long-term agency work. His most recognised film arrived in 2022 with Tiger 24: The Making of a Man-Eater, a feature documentary examining the controversial removal of a dominant Bengal tiger from Ranthambore, Rajasthan.

Using the animal’s life as a narrative lens, the film explored habitat loss, conservation policy and the tension between human expansion and wildlife survival. It was released theatrically in India and the United States and later licensed by Netflix in North America and Prime Video in India. The film holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and received public support on social media from actors Dia Mirza and John Abraham. Tiger 24 received extensive international recognition, including a Panda Award for On-Screen Talent at Wildscreen, multiple Best Documentary and craft awards across US and Indian festivals, and the Fateh Singh Rathore ‘Services to Wildlife’ Conservation Award in 2024. Pereira has also collaborated—often pro bono—with organisations such as Tiger Watch and the Madhya Pradesh Tiger Foundation Society, supporting conservation research and public awareness.

In 2023, he received the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar National Contribution Award for his broader conservation work. As a producer, Pereira’s credits include 1-800-Hot-Nite (2022), nominated for the Grand Special Prize at the Deauville Film Festival, and Downwind (2023), a documentary on the legacy of nuclear testing in the United States. Narrated by Martin Sheen and featuring Michael Douglas, Downwind premiered at Slamdance and won Best Environmental Documentary at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival. In recent years, Pereira has expanded beyond filmmaking. In 2023, he became CEO of Joseph Leslie & Company LLP, a Mumbai-based safety equipment firm founded by his grandfather. In 2025, he co-founded Sepera Products Private Limited, a manufacturing company focused on cost-efficient industrial safety lighting, overseeing procurement, compliance, manufacturing and large-scale industrial clients. Today, Pereira divides his time between Los Angeles and Mumbai, developing new films while building durable businesses—seeking a balance between creative independence and operational stability.