[3][4] He began his career with international stage plays[5] and also screenplay work for US television,[6] but is perhaps best known for directing the feature films Shalimar and The River Niger.
In his middle years, Shah was involved with the low budget cult circuit, directing and distributing movies such as Hard Rock Zombies and Ted & Venus, the later of which he executive produced through his Double Helix Films banner.
[15] Later that year, Shah and Dark Chamber were brought to the South African theatre scene by the black professional group Union Artists.
[22] Sponono debuted 12 December 1962 at ML Sultan Theatre, Durban, then travelled to Sea Point, Johannesburg, and on to Pietermaritzburg's Lotus Hall in March 1963.
[29] It was twenty years before Frank would produce her next and final play,[30] while Krishna Shah would abandon the world of theatre to explore film and television.
[39][better source needed] Shah's work in US television concluded with his single episode contribution to the series The Six Million Dollar Man, again for Universal.
[53] In 1982 another attempt was made to switch the title when distributor Jack H. Harris reissued the film for theatres, branding it Sex and the Single Parent.
[citation needed] James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, and Lou Gossett, Jr. would headline Krishna Shah's second feature film, The River Niger.
[54] In May 1973, the film rights to Joseph A. Walker's Tony and Pulitzer-winning Broadway play The River Niger were purchased from The Negro Ensemble Company at a price "well into six figures," by veteran producer Sidney Beckerman.
Touted as the most expensive film ever made in India at the time, Krishna Shah's 1978 Shalimar employed an ambitious galaxy of international stars.
[69] The film's premise is a 1970s Indian movie theatre audience engaged in watching a pastiche of historically significant Bollywood cinema clips, and their reactions to it.
The film failed financially and was universally panned by critics,[75] with Philip Brophy saying it "(has) the most ludicrous dialogue you'll ever hear short of an Ed Wood Jr. movie,"[76] and Evan Wade of Something Awful observing that "the only way this movie could be shittier is if it was a slideshow of Photoshop images featuring Ackbar battling Chuck Norris over a volcano full of robot dinosaurs.
He continued by saying, "(the film) is such a desperate stab at entertainment that if one were stranded on a desert island surrounded by sharks with only this movie to watch, you'd opt for water skiing.
"[80] In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Krishna Shah had a small string of ongoing boutique distribution and agenting companies, starting with his "Movie Reps" shingle that was based in a luxury high-rise residential condominium on Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea.
[81] Movie Reps would regularly attend most and sometimes all of the film markets such as MIFED, MIPCOM, AFM, and Cannes, carrying with it a slate of generally low-budget "schlock" fare, sold to various effect.
)[82] Krishna Shah and his Movie Reps would become involved with hundreds of international independent producers, distributors, financiers, and associated personnel, generally in the micro to low-budget arena.
People such as Nagesh Kukunoor,[83] Bud Cort, Ron Marchini, David Carradine (then on the downside of his career), and even Timothy Leary were regularly in and out the door of the Movie Reps offices.
[84] At one point, Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley---both largely unknown at the time---made an appointment with Shah, to consider buying his condo unit.
[87] Krishna Shah began his work with Double Helix Films while he was still running Movie Reps.[88] As such, he commissioned professionally crafted multi-page "newsletters" for each and every major market attended by the company.
[94] In August 2000 a Screen Daily piece mentioned that Shah was in the talent scouting phase for his Taj Mahal, a film expected to enter production in 2001.
Shah reportedly sold the script to "Hollywood" for Rs 2 Crore (approximately US$345,000 in 2019, when accounting inflation) and said there were "feelers" from Ridley Scott, Michael Rymer, Silvio Sardi, and Ramoji Rao.
[109] During the Cannes Film Festival of May 2010, Telegraph India journalist Amit Roy was told by Krishna Shah that Birth of a Nation was set to be made in two parts, "...like Lord of the Rings."
[110] In August 2010 Krishna Shah told Dubai's Gulf News that his Birth of a Nation script "...(had) been re-worked after I got my hands on Richard Nixon's personal tapes related to the 1971 Bangladesh War."
Shah also indicated that high-profile Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra was now his preferred casting choice for the Indira Gandhi role, based on his conversations with Academy Award-winning makeup artist Jenny Shircore.
[111] In the first week of October 2010 Krishna Shah made a sudden turnaround, revealing to India TV News that Hindi actress Kareena Kapoor would take the Indira Gandhi role.
This change was reported as due to makeup artists Jenny Shircore (and additionally Greg Cannom) deciding that Kapoor would be better suited than Chopra, for Indira Gandhi's physical transformations throughout the film.
[113] Less than a month later Shah would comment about his casting process with a confusing statement: "As it stands today, only two actors in Bollywood are on the scanner (for the role of Indira): One is Kareena Kapoor and the other is Priyanka Chopra.
[117] Beresford confirms his attachment to the project as director while Shah brushes off any idea of problems with the Gandhi family, saying, "This story is in the public domain and as an artiste, I have the right to interpret and depict it, based on factual material.
In attendance and pictured with Shah were director Bruce Beresford, along with Hollywood's "Power Couple"[118] of former Creative Artists Agency co-chairman Rick Nicita and producer/talent agent Paula Wagner.
Others photographed at the gala included Zeenat Aman, Poonam Dhillon, Neena Gupta, Soni Razdan, Deepa Sahi, Rohini Hattangadi, Kalpana Lazmi, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Prateik Babbar, Ketan Mehta, and Sanjay Chhel.