This is a list of notable

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

makers from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

arranged in alphabetical order. :

A

* A. K. Chettiar * Aarti Shrivastava *

Akanksha Damini Joshi Akanksha Damini Joshi is an Indian filmmaker, cinematographer, photographer and a meditation facilitator. Career Joshi has made films on a range of topics: communal conflict, ecological crisis and spiritual philosophy. Her career began with doc ...

* Amudhan R P * Anand Patwardhan *

Anwar Jamal Anwar Jamal (born 15 August 1961) is an Indian documentary filmmaker, based in New Delhi. He has been awarded the National Film Award on several occasions and had made critically acclaimed feature, short and documentary films a wide array of so ...

* Aparna Sanyal * Arun Chadha *

Ashvin Kumar Ashvin Kumar is India's youngest Oscar-nominated and two-time national award-winning filmmaker, who has written, directed and produced a wide range of films, including India's only Oscar nominated short film ''Little Terrorist'' (2004), docume ...

* Shah Alam (filmmaker)

B

Biju Toppo Biju Toppo is an anthropological and national award-winning tribal documentary filmmaker from Ranchi, Jharkhand. He uses film as a medium for social activism on behalf of marginalized indigenous communities, and teaches video production at St. ...

C

* C. S. Venkiteswaran * Chalam Bennurkar

D

* Debalina Majumder *

Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj is an Indian journalist, documentary film-maker and men's rights activist. Bhardwaj rose to prominence after producing the documentary ''Martyrs of Marriage'', which covered abuses of criminal section 498A (Anti-dowry la ...

Dinanath Gopal Tendulkar Dinanath Gopal Tendulkar (1909–1972) was an Indian writer and documentary film maker. He is most well known as the author of an eight-volume biography of Mahatma Gandhi, titled ''Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi''. He was also a clos ...

* Dinesh D'Souza

E

Ezra Mir Ezra Mir (26 October 1903 – 7 March 1993) ( fl. 1924–1993) was an Indian film-maker, known for his documentary films. Mir changed his Jewish birth name, Edwyn Meyers, to Ezra Mir because he felt his original name "lacked Indianness". After ...

F

* Faiza Ahmad Khan

G

Gauhar Raza Gauhar Raza (born 17 August 1956) is an Indian scientist by profession, and a leading Urdu poet, social activist and documentary filmmaker working to popularize the understanding of science among general public, known for his films like ''Jung- ...

Gopal Menon Gopal Menon (born 29 April 1974) is an Indian documentary film director, producer and cinematographer known for his activism through social action documentaries. He has made films on violence, religious fundamentalism, nationality question, stat ...

* Sonali Gulati

H

Harjant Gill Harjant Gill is an Indian documentary filmmaker and teaches visual anthropology at Towson University. His films explore topics related to gender, sexuality, religion and belonging in India and among Indians in diaspora. Personal life Gill was ...

J

Jagat Murari Jagat Murari (5 October 1924 – 13 April 2007) was a distinguished Indian documentary filmmaker, known well for his contributions to Indian cinema as a producer, director and, above all, educator. He played a pioneering role in a number of ke ...

K

* K P SASI *

K. Bikram Singh K. Bikram Singh (26 May 1938 – 12 May 2013) was an Indian politician and filmmaker, most known for his documentary film, ''Satyajit Ray Introspections'' (1991) and feature film, ''Tarpan'' (1994). After a short stint as a lecturer in history, he ...

* K. M. Chaitanya * Kabir Khan

L

Lalit Vachani Lalit Vachani is an Indian documentary filmmaker. Life Vachani studied at the St. Stephen's College, Delhi University and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a visiting lecturer at the Mass Communi ...

Leena Manimekalai Leena Manimekalai is an Indian filmmaker, poet and an actor. Her works include five published poetry anthologies and a dozen films in genres, documentary, fiction and experimental poem films. She has been recognised with participation, mentions ...

Lubna Yusuf Lubna or Lubná may refer to: Places Czech Republic *Lubná (Kroměříž District), a municipality and village in the Zlín Region *Lubná (Rakovník District), a municipality and village in the Central Bohemian Region *Lubná (Svitavy District), ...

M

M. F. Husain Maqbool Fida Husain (17 September 1915 – 9 June 2011) was an Indian artist known for executing bold, vibrantly coloured narrative paintings in a modified Cubist style. He was one of the most celebrated and internationally recognised Ind ...

* Maga.Tamizh Prabhagaran *

Mazhar Kamran Mazhar Kamran is an Indian film and documentary film director and cinematographer. Kamran graduated with a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, but because of his love for films he chose film making as a profession. He starte ...

Mike Pandey Mike H. Pandey is an Indian film maker, specializing in films about wildlife and the environment. He has won over 300 awards for his work to spread awareness about biodiversity and species conservation, including helping conserve and protect ke ...

* Mira Nair * Mrinmoy Bhowmick * Meghnath

N

* Nakul Singh Sawhney * Nandan Saxena *

Nisha Pahuja Nisha Pahuja (born 1978) is an independent Canadian filmmaker, born in New Delhi and raised in Toronto, Ontario.Indiewire. "Meet the 2012 Tribeca Filmmakers #5: 'The World Before Her' Director Nisha Pahuja. Indiewire, 201/ref> This writer/arti ...

Nishtha Jain Nishtha Jain (born 21 June 1965) is an Indian film director and producer best known for her documentaries like ''Gulabi Gang (2012)Lakshmi and Me (2007) anCity of Photos (2004).'' Her films interrogate lived experience at the intersection of ge ...

Nirmal Baby Varghese Nirmal Baby Varghese is an Indian film director in Malayalam. He is known for his historical documentary film ''Thariode''. His feature directorial debut '' Vazhiye'', was an experimental movie made in found footage style and it is the first ...

P

Pan Nalin Nalin Kumar Pandya or Pan Nalin is a filmmaker of Indian origin. Nalin is best known for directing award-winning movies like Samsara, Valley of Flowers, and Angry Indian Goddesses. His debut feature SAMSARA (Miramax) was worldwide critical a ...

Pankaj Butalia Pankaj Butalia is an Indian documentary filmmaker. His 1993 film ''Moksha'' (also known by the English title ''Salvation''), on the widows of Vrindavan, received four international awards. Several of his films have been screened extensively thr ...

Paromita Vohra Paromita Vohra is an Indian filmmaker and writer. She is known for her documentaries on subjects such as urban life, pop culture and gender. She has also written the screenplay of the award-winning feature film ''Khamosh Pani''. Her film product ...

Prakash Jha Prakash Jha (born 27 February 1952) is an Indian film producer, actor, director and screenwriter, mostly known for his political and socio-political films such as “Hip Hip Hurray” (1984), ''Damul'' (1984), ''Mrityudand'' (1997), ''Gangaaja ...

Parvez Sharma Parvez Sharma is a New York-based Indian filmmaker, author, and journalist. He is a recipient of the 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship in the film/video category. He was amongst the 173 fellows selected from 3000 applicants in the 94th year of the fe ...

* Poorva DineshPoorva Dinesh
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Q

Qaushiq Mukherjee Qaushiq Mukherjee (born 1975), popularly known as Q, is an Indian film director known for his controversial cult film ''Gandu''. Mukherjee grew up in Kolkata and was educated at South Point High School. He completed his bachelor's degree from U ...

R

* Rajesh S. Jala * Rajesh Touchriver * Rakesh Sharma (filmmaker) *

Ritu Sarin Ritu Sarin is an Indian film director, producer and artist based in Dharamshala, India. She was born in New Delhi. She did her undergraduate studies at Miranda House in Delhi University and went on to do her MFA in Film and Video from California ...

* Rituparno Ghosh *

Ritwik Ghatak Ritwik Kumar Ghatak (; 4 November 19256 February 1976) was a noted Indian film director, screenwriter, and playwright. Along with prominent contemporary Bengali filmmakers Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha and Mrinal Sen, his cinema is primarily remembe ...

S

* Shiny Benjamin * Saba Dewan *

Sanjay Kak Sanjay Kak (born 1958) is an Indian author, activist and self-taught film-maker. He is known for his documentaries about environmental activism and Civil resistance, resistance politics. Background and education Kak was born into a family of K ...

Sathish Kalathil Sathish Kalathil is an Indian film and documentary director and producer in Malayalam. He is also story writer, and lyricist. His experimental works are well known and appropriately discussed in Malayalam Cinema industry and his debut movie Ja ...

* Satyaprakash Upadhyay *

Shashwati Talukdar Shashwati Talukdar is an India-born academic-filmmaker based in New York City, with more than twelve films and videos to her name,Phadnis, Rohina. "Shashwati Talukdar: Championing Social Justice through Film." ABCD Lady. 21 April 2008. . and who h ...

Shriprakash Prakash Shriprakash (born 23 December 1966) is an Indian activist and independent documentary filmmaker. Biography Shriprakash was born in December 1966 from a family of farmers in the state of Bihar, in an area that in 2000 became a separate state ca ...

* Sonali Gulati * Sankar * Sridhar Rangayan *

Stalin K Stalin K. is an Indian documentary filmmaker, media and human rights activist. His films, ''Lesser Humans'' and ''India Untouched'', on the issue of caste and untouchability in contemporary India, have galvanized international attention to cast ...

Shyam Benegal Shyam Benegal (born 14 December 1934) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Often regarded as the pioneer of parallel cinema, he is widely considered as one of the greatest filmmakers post 1970s. He has received ...

V

Vidhu Vinod Chopra Vidhu Vinod Chopra (born 5 September 1952) is an Indian film director, producer, editor, screenwriter, lyricist and actor. His well-known films as director are ''Parinda'' (1988), '' 1942: A Love Story'' (1994). He is also known for producing ' ...

* Vijaya Mulay * Vinay Shukla

References

External links

The Best Film Directors of Indian Cinema

India, Through the Lens of Documentary Films

Women documentary filmmakers
{{Expand list, date=January 2018 * documentary

Indian filmmakers Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...