Madhur Bhandarkar

Madhur Bhandarkar

Madhur Bhandarkar on the Sets of Heroine
Born (1968-08-26) 26 August 1968
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Occupation Film director, screenwriter, producer
Years active 1995–present
Spouse(s) Renu Bhandarkar
Website www.madhurbhandarkar.in

Madhur Bhandarkar (born 26 August 1968) is an Indian film director, script writer, and producer. He made his directorial debut with Trishakti and went on to direct several critically and commercially successful films.

The drama film Chandni Bar (2001), won him the National Film Award for Best Film on Social Issues. Bhandarkar received the National Film Awards for the Best Feature Film and Best Director for Page 3 (2005) and Traffic Signal (2007) respectively. The drama film Fashion (2008) garnered him several accolades including Filmfare Awards nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Madhur was recently invited as the special Guest of Honour for the First International Yoga Day celebrations at the United Nations in New York on June 21.[1] In 2016, Bhandarkar was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, by the Government of India.[2] Bhandarkar is the youngest Indian filmmaker to receive the Padma Shri.

Biography

Career

Madhur Bhandarkar worked in a video cassette library in Khar, a suburb of Mumbai. This gave him access to a large collection of movies and he studied film-making through it.

After trying his skills with small-time filmmakers as an assistant, Bhandarkar landed up as an assistant to Ram Gopal Varma. He even played his first cameo in his 1995 film Rangeela where he was the associate director to Ram Gopal Varma. A couple of years later he made his directorial debut with Trishakti which took more than three years to make and released in 1999. The film had a relatively low key cast and was largely ignored at the box office. After two years he directed Chandni Bar (2001) starring Tabu and Atul Kulkarni with a budget of Rs 15 million. The film was critically acclaimed and a box office success, which took Bhandarkar into the top league of filmmakers in Bollywood. He received his first National Award for this film and thereon won National awards for his films Page-3 and Traffic Signal. His movie Fashion (2008) also won National Awards for Best Actress (Priyanka Chopra) and for Best Supporting Actress (Kangana Ranaut).

Madhur was conferred PL Deshpande Award a.k.a. Zenith Asia Award for significantly shaping the film making culture in his unique works and he has been described as 'the Film Maker of the First Decade of the 21st Century'. On the Silver Jubilee Year of Aashay Film Club, award ceremony took place on 16 Nov at National Film Archive Theatre during the eighth Pulotsav – An Art Festival in Pune. PL Deshpande was a renowned writer, stage and film actor and his literary works are still revered in Maharashtra and others parts of the world. In his honour, Zenith Asia Award was given to Madhur Bhandarkar and his film Chandni Bar was also screened during the fest amongst landmark 25 films from world cinema.

In Nov, 2010 National Film Archive of India (NFAI) announced to preserve all the films of Madhur Bhandarkar. Chandni Bar, Page-3, Corporate, Traffic Signal, Fashion and Jail found space in Government's Archival data for Indian films.

Personal life

Bhandarkar hails from a Marathi speaking family. He is a school drop-out. He came from a middle-class family. As a result, Madhur had to take up various jobs. He worked at a video store as an errand boy and dropped off cassettes to people from many walks of life including dance bar girls and film stars. He also sold chewing gum at traffic signals and worked as an assistant to small-time directors for a salary of 1000.[3]

He is a great devotee of the Hindu God Siddhivinayak and has been walking from his house in Khar, Mumbai to the temple for the past 18 years on every Tuesday. Madhur also regularly visits Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu & Kashmir and the Golden Temple in Amritsar. According to him, the film Corporate was his most difficult film as people in corporate world would shun him after he bared Page 3 culture in his earlier film. He took inspiration for Corporate from the Coke – Pepsi controversy. He has been invited to deliver lectures on corporate issues to management students after the release of Corporate. (Interview to TV channel IBN Lokmat on 26 November 2008) Bhandarkar married his girlfriend Renu Namboodiri on 15 December 2003 in Mumbai.[4] They have a daughter named Siddhi.

Directorial style

In most of his films, Bhandarkar's protagonist are females. (Tabu in Chandni Bar, Raveena Tandon in Satta, Konkona Sen Sharma in Page 3, Bipasha Basu in Corporate, Neetu Chandra in Traffic Signal, Priyanka Chopra in Fashion and Kareena Kapoor in Heroine.) The exception here being Neil Nitin Mukesh, who was cast as the protagonist in the movie Jail. He has also depicted gay characters in his movies like Page 3, Traffic Signal and Fashion.

In an interview, he said: "My movies are not exposes, maybe they just hold up a mirror to society. My movies are not judgmental; I just show what happens in our society, sometimes there could be a solution and sometimes there may be none. Life goes on.".[5] Madhur is known for his hard-hitting and realistic films.[6][7]

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
2015 Calendar Girls Director
2012 Heroine Director
2011 Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji Director
2009 Jail Director, co-Writer
2008 Fashion Director, Writer (Story & Screenplay), producer Nominated-Filmfare Award for Best Director
Nominated-Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay
Nominated-Screen Award for Best Story
Nominated-IIFA Award for Best Director
Nominated-IIFA Award for Best Story
Nominated-Stardust Award for Best Film
Nominated-Stardust Award for Best Director
2007 Traffic Signal Director,
Writer (Dialogue, Screenplay & Story)
National Film Award for Best Director
2006 Corporate Director,
Writer (Screenplay)
Case Study for IIM Ahmedabad
2005 Page 3 Director,
Writer (Dialogue)
National Film Award for Best Feature Film
Nominated-Filmfare Award for Best Director
2004 Aan: Men at Work Director,
Writer (Dialogue & Story)
2003 Satta Director,
Writer (Dialogue & Story)
Won All India Human Rights Association Award
2001 Chandni Bar Director,
writer
National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues
1999 Trishakti Director
1995 Rangeela Actor

Television

Serial Channel
Specials @ 10Sony TV

Awards

Achievements

International awards

Other awards

References

  1. "Madhur Bhandarkar to attend Yoga Day at UN - Times of India".
  2. 1 2 "Rajinikanth gets Padma Vibhushan; Padma Shri for Priyanka Chopra, Ajay Devgn". The Indian Express. 25 January 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
  3. "I've no friends in Bollywood: Madhur – Times Of India". Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 27 September 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
  4. "Madhur Bhandarkar's wife Renu Namboodiri hates dark films : EYECATCHERS – India Today". Indiatoday.intoday.in. 29 December 2003. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
  5. ""My films just hold up a mirror to society' - Madhur Bhandarkar".
  6. "Madhur: Hard-hitting movie again! - Bollywood.com News".
  7. "6 unforgettable hard-hitting films of Madhur Bhandarkar".
  8. "Madhur Bhandarkar thanks Tabu for 'Chandni Bar' – Bollywood Movie News". IndiaGlitz. 29 September 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
  9. PTI (13 July 2005). "Saif is the best actor; Page 3 best film – Times of India". Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
  10. ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ best popular film
  11. "Madhur Bhandarkar honoured with Sophia Award in New York". news.biharprabha.com. IANS. 12 October 2014. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  12. "Bhandarkar honoured at the House of Commons". HindustanTimes. 8 November 2014. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  13. "Madhur Bhandarkar to receive Raj Kapoor Smriti Awards". The Indian Express. 2014-08-05. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
  14. "About The Kalakar Awards - Kalakarawards" (PDF).
  15. "Madhur Bhandarkar At Mirchi Music Award Jury Bollywood Helpline". www.bollywoodhelpline.com. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
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