‘Kumaré’ Filmmaker Vikram Gandhi Joins HBO’s ‘Vice’ As a Correspondent

“‘Vice‘ makes the kind of documentaries that I’d been trying to make for years. There is a deeper truth that can be revealed from living in a story. And that is what we are trying to tap into.” So says Vikram Gandhi, a journalist, filmmaker, and now producer and correspondent for HBO‘s series “Vice.” Gandhi’s documentary “Kumaré,” in which he pretended to be a guru from India and gathered a following with made-up spiritualism, won the Audience Award at SXSW 2011.

Produced by the magazine-turned-media empire, “Vice” is a world news show exploring everything from U.S. military waste and corruption in Afghanistan to extortion, torture and killing in Rio’s favelas. Its second season kicked off on March 14th. April 4th will see the premiere of the first of Gandhi’s five episodes, which spotlight terrorism in India, a tribal uprising in Papua New Guinea, government secrecy in Japan and escalating violence in Honduras.

“It was a perfect fit for me. It’s been refreshing to be in an environment that is not afraid to take risks. This season has been challenging, seeing the world in way I’ve never seen before,” said Gandhi.

Hosted by Vice Media founder Shane Smith, the series is executive produced by Bill Maher, Shane Smith, Eddy Moretti (Vice’s chief creative officer) and BJ Levin, with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria as consultant.