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Madhur Bhandarkar (born 26 August 1968) is an Indian film director, script writer, and producer. In 2016,Bhandarkar was honoured with the
Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...
, the fourth highest civilian honour, by the
Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...
. The drama film ''
Chandni Bar ''Chandni Bar'' is a 2001 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. It depicts the gritty life of the Mumbai underworld, including prostitution, dance bars and gun crime. The film stars Tabu and Atul Kulkarni in l ...
'' (2001), won him the National Film Award for Best Film on Social Issues. Bhandarkar received the National Film Awards for the
Best Feature Film Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporatio ...
and
Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...
for ''
Page 3 Page 3, or Page Three, was a British newspaper convention of publishing a large image of a topless female glamour model (known as a Page 3 girl) on the third page of mainstream red-top tabloids. '' The Sun'' introduced the feature, publishi ...
'' (2005) and ''
Traffic Signal Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traffic. Traffic lights ...
'' (2007) respectively. The drama film ''
Fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...
'' (2008) garnered him several accolades including
National Film Award The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directora ...
,
Filmfare Awards The Filmfare Awards are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Hindi-language film industry of India.Al The Filmfare ceremony is one of the most famous film events in India. The awards were first introduced by th ...
nominations for
Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...
and Best Screenplay. Madhur Co-Produced a Bengali film
Avijatrik ''Avijatrik'' is a 2021 Bengali-language drama film, written and directed by Subhrajit Mitra and produced by Gaurang Jalan, co-produced by Madhur Bhandarkar. The screenplay is based on the novel ''Aparajito'' by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. T ...
based on the novel ''Aparajito'' by
Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay () (12 September 1894 – 1 November 1950) was an Indian writer in the Bengali language. His best known works are the autobiographical novel, ''Pather Panchali'' (''Song of the Little Road''), ''Aparajito (Undefeate ...
, The film won
National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali The National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of severa ...
in 2021 and this was Madhur's 5th National Award Madhur Bhandarkar has been nominated as society member of the
Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) is a film and television institute located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Named after Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, the institute provides higher and professional education and technical exp ...
by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.


Career

Madhur Bhandarkar worked in a video cassette library in
Khar Khar may refer to: Places * Khar, Mumbai, a suburb of Mumbai, India * Khar, Punjab, a town in the Punjab Province, Pakistan * Khar, Bajaur, a town in the Bajaur Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pakistan * Khar, Nepal, a village ...
, a suburb of
Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
. 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 Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma (born 7 April 1962), often referred to by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, known for his works in Telugu cinema in addition to Hindi, Kannada language films, and television.** * ...
. 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 ''Chandni Bar'' is a 2001 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. It depicts the gritty life of the Mumbai underworld, including prostitution, dance bars and gun crime. The film stars Tabu and Atul Kulkarni in l ...
'' (2001) starring
Tabu Tabu may refer to: Cultural and legal concepts *Taboo (spelled ''tabu'' in earlier historical records), something that is unacceptable in society *Tapu (Polynesian culture) (also spelled ''tabu''), a Polynesian cultural concept from which the wor ...
and
Atul Kulkarni Atul Kulkarni (born 10 September 1965) is an Indian actor, producer and screenwriter who works in Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, English, Odia and Telugu language films. Kulkarni won the National Award for the Best Supporting A ...
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 The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorate ...
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 Priyanka Chopra Jonas (; ; born 18 July 1982) is an Indian actress and producer. The winner of the Miss World 2000 pageant, Chopra is one of India's highest-paid actresses and has received numerous accolades, including two National Film Awar ...
) and for Best Supporting Actress (
Kangana Ranaut Kangna Amardeep Ranaut (; born 23 March 1987) is an Indian actress and filmmaker who works in Hindi films. Known for her work in female-led films, she is the recipient of several awards, including four National Film Awards and five Filmfar ...
). 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 ''Chandni Bar'' is a 2001 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. It depicts the gritty life of the Mumbai underworld, including prostitution, dance bars and gun crime. The film stars Tabu and Atul Kulkarni in l ...
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 and Konkani speaking
Gaud Saraswat Brahmin Gaud Saraswat Brahmins (GSB) (also Goud or Gawd) are a Hindu Brahmin community of the north. The Konkani speaking Gaud Saraswat of Goa and southern India claim to be descendents of these Gaud Saraswat Brahmins of the north that migrated to ...
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. 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 A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...
'' 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 Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
. They have a daughter named Siddhi.


Controversy

While in 2012, Supreme Court justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad passed an order quashing the ongoing criminal proceedings, noting that Preeti Jain did not want to pursue the case against Bhandarkar and that the Mumbai police had earlier called the claim false and thus given him a clean chit. Initially, in 2004, Preeti Jain, a model and actress, accused Madhur Bhandarkar of rape and lodged a complaint with the Versova Police where she alleged that the filmmaker had raped her 16 times between 1999 and 2004 with the promise of casting her in his films. She also alleged that he promised to marry her and produced SMS texts, where he had reportedly asked for sexual favours, as evidence. Bhandarkar claimed that the complaint was cheating-related, not about rape. In 2011, a Mumbai court found substance in her complaint and asked Bhandarkar to face the trial. He challenged the lower court's order before the higher court, which too rejected his plea. In 2011, the police filed a report where it stated that the claim against the filmmaker was 'maliciously false'. The court rejected this report and held there was prima facie a case against Bhandarkar. The Bombay High Court confirmed the magisterial court's decision to continue with Bhandarkar's prosecution. In 2011, the Bombay high court asked the filmmaker to face the trial in the case. He challenged the court's order in Supreme Court. A Supreme Court bench quashed a rape case that had been filed against Bollywood director Madhur Bhandarkar on November 5, 2012. However, prior to this, in 2005, in a bizarre turn of events, Preeti was arrested for hiring a contract killer to murder Bhandarkar. She was to pay Rs 75,000 to Naresh Pardeshi, the associate of infamous Mumbai don Arun Gawli to kill the filmmaker. Reports suggest that the model demanded her money back because the execution failed to take place. When Gawli was made aware of this, he instructed his lawyer to file a complaint against her at the Agripada police station. The rape case was cited as one of the reasons why she wanted the filmmaker dead. After a week long probe, the police arrested her while she was on her way to the Versova Police station. The initial trial began at a fast-track court in Sewri, which shut down, and consequently, the case was transferred to the sessions court. She was awarded a three-year imprisonment and found guilty of conspiracy, aiding and abetting crime.


Directorial style

In most of his films, Bhandarkar's protagonist are females. (
Tabu Tabu may refer to: Cultural and legal concepts *Taboo (spelled ''tabu'' in earlier historical records), something that is unacceptable in society *Tapu (Polynesian culture) (also spelled ''tabu''), a Polynesian cultural concept from which the wor ...
in ''Chandni Bar'',
Raveena Tandon Raveena Tandon (born 26 October 1972) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. The daughter of director Ravi Tandon, she made her acting debut in the 1991 action film '' Patthar Ke Phool'', which won her the Filmfare Award for New Face ...
in ''Satta'',
Konkona Sen Sharma Konkona Sen Sharma (born 3 December 1979) is an Indian actress and filmmaker who works primarily in Hindi and Bengali films. She has received two National Film Awards and four Filmfare Awards. The daughter of filmmakeractress Aparna Sen, Sen S ...
in ''Page 3'',
Bipasha Basu Bipasha Basu Singh Grover (born 7 January 1979) is an Indian actress and former model. Primarily known for her work in Hindi films, she has also appeared in Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and English films. Basu is the recipient of numerous accolades ...
in ''Corporate'',
Neetu Chandra Nitu Chandra is an Indian actress, film producer and theatre artist. She is also a classical dancer and a sportsperson, involved in the promotion of basketball in the country through her close association with the NBA and Taekwondo, being a fou ...
in ''Traffic Signal'',
Priyanka Chopra Priyanka Chopra Jonas (; ; born 18 July 1982) is an Indian actress and producer. The winner of the Miss World 2000 pageant, Chopra is one of India's highest-paid actresses and has received numerous accolades, including two National Film Awar ...
in ''Fashion'' and
Kareena Kapoor Kareena Kapoor Khan (; '' née'' Kapoor; born 21 September 1980) is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi films. She is the daughter of actors Randhir Kapoor and Babita, and the younger sister of actress Karisma Kapoor. Noted for playing a va ...
in ''Heroine''.) The exception here being
Neil Nitin Mukesh Neil Nitin Mukesh Chand Mathur (born 15 January 1982) is an Indian actor, producer and writer who mainly works in Bollywood films . Born to singer Nitin Mukesh and grandson of Mukesh, he debuted as a child artist in '' Vijay'' (1988) and ''Jais ...
, 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.". Madhur is known for his hard-hitting and realistic films.


Filmography


Television


Awards

* 2016:
Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...
, the fourth highest civilian award, by the
Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...
. * National Film Awards ** 2007: Best Direction: ''
Traffic Signal Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traffic. Traffic lights ...
'' *
Sophia Awards The Sophia Awards are the Portuguese Cinematography, cinematographic and film awards, assigned annually, which aim to recognize the best national productions. Its name was chosen in honor of the Portuguese poet and writer Sophia de Mello Breyner A ...
at Syracuse International Film Festival 2014. * Conferred with the prestigious British honour - the Creative Spirit and Visionary Director's Award for 2013-14 - at the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
, London, UK * State of Maharashtra conferred Bhandarkar with the Raj Kapoor Smriti Award for contribution to Indian cinema.


Achievements


International awards

* ''
Chandni Bar ''Chandni Bar'' is a 2001 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. It depicts the gritty life of the Mumbai underworld, including prostitution, dance bars and gun crime. The film stars Tabu and Atul Kulkarni in l ...
'', Best Film at ''
Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...
'' International Film Festival 2003 and Technical Award for Best Background Music Score at ''Moscow'' International Film Festival 2003. * ''
Page 3 Page 3, or Page Three, was a British newspaper convention of publishing a large image of a topless female glamour model (known as a Page 3 girl) on the third page of mainstream red-top tabloids. '' The Sun'' introduced the feature, publishi ...
'', Official Selection at the Raindance Film Festival, ''London'' 2006 and IFFLA Los Angeles 2006. ''
Corporate A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...
'', Official Selection at the ''
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
'' Asia-Pacific Film Festival 2006. * ''Fashion'', Official Selection at the 31st Moscow International Film Festival 2009, Festival de Festivals, St.Petersburg 2009 and ''
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
'' Bollywood Festival 2009. * Retrospective of Page 3, Traffic Signal and Fashion with Russian Sub-Titles held by the Ministry of Culture, Russia and SOVEXPORTFILM in Moscow 2009. * Retrospective of Chandni Bar, Page 3, Corporate, Traffic Signal, Fashion and Jail at the 33rd Cairo International Film Festival 2009. * In 2009 he was awarded the Best Director for his Outstanding Contribution to Indian Cinema by the Ministry of Culture, Russia. * A retrospective of five films made by the filmmaker were showcased at the 33rd Cairo International Film Festival in Egypt from 10–20 November 2009. The films included Chandni Bar, Page3, Corporate, Traffic Signal and Fashion. Bhandarkar was present for the International event.


Other awards

* Bhandarkar received the Society Leading Lights Leadership Award in March 2017. * Mayor of Mumbai – Excellency Award (2006) * Kalaranjani Awards – (2005) * Kalakar Awards for Best Director (2007) for ''Corporate'' * Pride of Nation Award * Kesari Gaurav Sanman * Lions Gold Award (2005–06) (2008–09) * IMPPA Awards * Asian Film Foundation Award (2008) * Farsa Award (2009) * Jury Special Salute - Mirchi Music Awards (2016)


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bhandarkar, Madhur Living people Film directors from Mumbai Hindi-language film directors 1968 births Marathi people Best Director National Film Award winners Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts Filmfare Awards winners 20th-century Indian film directors 21st-century Indian film directors Directors who won the Best Feature Film National Film Award Directors who won the Best Film on Other Social Issues National Film Award