Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Template:Short description Template:Use Indian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person
Vidhu Vinod Chopra (born 5 September 1952) is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including five National Film Awards and ten Filmfare Awards. He is known for directing films such as the crime drama Parinda (1989), the patriotic romantic drama 1942: A Love Story (1994), the action drama Mission Kashmir (2000) and the biographical drama 12th Fail (2023). He is also known for producing the Munna Bhai film series, 3 Idiots (2009), PK (2014), and Sanju (2018) under his banner Vinod Chopra Films.
Early life
Chopra was born and grew up in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India to a Punjabi Hindu family.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His father was D. N. Chopra and veteran filmmaker Ramanand Sagar was his half-brother.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His brother, Vir K. Chopra, was a scholar of Indian politics and worked as a producer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His parents were originally from Peshawar, British India.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His mother was Shanti Devi Mahalakshmi, who left Kashmir, due to the Kashmir conflict in 1990. He dedicated his film Shikara to his mother, which was based on the same.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He studied film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune.
Career
Chopra's first student short film, Murder at Monkey Hill (1976), won the National Film Award for Best Short Experimental Film and the Guru Dutt Memorial Award for Best Student Film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
This was followed by a short documentary highlighting the plight of India's destitute children, called An Encounter with Faces (1976), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film in 1979. It also won the Grand Prix at the Tampere Film Festival in 1980.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Sazaye Maut, his first full-length feature film, was an adaptation of his previous short, Murder at Monkey Hill. It starred Naseeruddin Shah, Radha Saluja and Dilip Dhawan. Vanraj Bhatia composed the music for the film.
He founded his own production company, Vinod Chopra Films, in 1985. Since then, the company has gone on to produce major Bollywood films, and is currently one of the biggest and most successful film production houses in India.
For Template:Lang, his next directorial venture, Chopra assembled a cast featuring some of the finest acting talent in India. Shabana Azmi, Amol Palekar, Naseeruddin Shah and Pankaj Kapoor, among others, appeared in prominent roles. An inventive meta thriller set in Kashmir, Template:Lang remains one of the notable Indian films in the genre.
His next directorial, the crime drama Template:Lang (1989), proved to be a landmark film in Hindi cinema. It expanded the orbit of the crime drama and the vocabulary of images used in Hindi films while garnering widespread critical acclaim and numerous awards. Several modern Indian filmmakers have expressed their admiration for and drawn inspiration from Chopra's film.
Chopra's next film, 1942: A Love Story (1994), was a patriotic romantic drama set during the decline of the British Raj. With Anil Kapoor and Manisha Koirala in lead roles, it was also the last film to have its music composed by the legendary R. D. Burman. Burman received a Filmfare Award for Best Music Director and the film won a total of nine awards at the 40th Filmfare Awards. His following two films, Kareeb and Mission Kashmir, were also critically and commercially successful.
Chopra then produced 5 films with filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani for 5 films: Munna Bhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, 3 Idiots, PK, and Sanju. The first 3, which Chopra also co wrote, each won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment, and Lage Raho Munna Bhai also won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay. They were all also very commercially successful, with 3 Idiots and PK becoming the highest grossing Indian films of all time in India and worldwide, also breaking into East Asian markets.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref> He also wrote and produced Parineeta, Ferrari Ki Sawaari, and Wazir.
However, Chopra's next directorials after 2000 were not as successful. His 2007 film Eklavya: The Royal Guard was a financial disappointment. He also made his Hollywood directorial debut in 2015 with the film Broken Horses, a remake of his own film Parinda. However, it received a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 22%,<ref name="RT Broken Horses">Template:Cite web</ref> and was a commercial disaster, only making Rs. 60 lakh in its opening weekend.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His 2020 release Shikara was a romantic drama about the Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus. It became his lowest-grossing film since Khamosh.
Chopra then saw a return to success with his 2023 release, the biopic 12th Fail. Despite a low opening day box office, due to great reviews and word of mouth, it became a financial hit, grossing 70 crores on a 20 crore budget.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It then won 5 Filmfare Awards, including Best Film, Director, Screenplay, and Editing for Chopra.
Filmography
Television
| Title | Year | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi (DD National) | 1984 | Himself | Episode 32: "Dieting" |
Bibliography
| Year | Name | Co Writer(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Unscripted: Conversation on life and cinema | Abhijat Joshi | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> |
Awards and nominations
- 2007: Winner, Best Screenplay for Lage Raho Munna Bhai
- 2001: Nominated, IIFA Award for Best Director for Mission Kashmir
- 2010: Winner, Best Screenplay for 3 Idiots
- 2009: Winner, Readers' Choice Award for 3 Idiots
- 2009: Winner, Most Successful Film of the Year for 3 Idiots
- 2006: Winner, Best Film for Lage Raho Munnabhai
- 2006: Nominated, Best Screenplay for Lage Raho Munna Bhai
- 2009: Winner, Best Film, 3 Idiots
- 2009: Winner, Best Screenplay, 3 Idiots
- 2007: Winner, Best Screenplay for Lage Raho Munna Bhai
- 2005: Winner, Best Dialogue for Parineeta
- 2005: Winner, Best Director for Mission Kashmir
- 1980: Winner, Grand Prix for An Encounter with Faces
Personal life
He has been married thrice, his first wife was noted editor Renu Saluja (m. 1976–1983), he was then married to filmmaker Shabnam Sukhdev (m. 1985–1989), the daughter of S. Sukhdev (1933–1979) a well known director of documentaries for the Films Division of India. He has a daughter with Shabnam, Ishaa Chopra, who works as a dance instructor and choreographer.<ref>Watch: A documentary revisits S. Sukhdev's life and career. Scroll.in.</ref>
He is currently married to Indian film critic Anupama Chopra, whom he married on 1 June 1990.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He has two children with her, a son, Agni and a daughter, Zuni Chopra.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
References
External links
Template:Vidhu Vinod Chopra Template:NationalFilmAwardBestScreenplay Template:FilmfareAwardBestDirector Template:FilmfareAwardBestStory Template:FilmfareAwardBestScreenplay Template:Authority control
- Living people
- 1952 births
- Film directors from Jammu and Kashmir
- Hindi-language film directors
- People from Srinagar
- Telstra People's Choice Award winners
- Film and Television Institute of India alumni
- Film producers from Jammu and Kashmir
- Indian documentary filmmakers
- Indian male screenwriters
- Filmfare Awards winners
- Hindi film editors
- Film editors from Jammu and Kashmir
- Best Original Screenplay National Film Award winners
- Producers who won the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment National Film Award
- Producers who won the Best Debut Feature Film of a Director National Film Award