India has many regional film centres, such as

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

(Hindi) in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

Telugu cinema Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Telugu language, widely spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Telugu cinema is based in Film Nagar, ...

(Tollywood) in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

Marathi cinema Marathi cinema is an Indian film industry of Marathi-language motion pictures. It is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Based in old Mumbai, it is the oldest film industry of Indian cinema. The first Marathi film to be released in India was '' ...

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

Tamil cinema Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywo ...

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, Malayalam cinema in Kochi,

Kannada cinema Kannada cinema, also known as Sandalwood, or Chandanavana, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Kannada language widely spoken in the state of Karnataka. The 1934 film '' Sati Sulochana'' directe ...

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

, Odia Cinema in Bhubaneswar, Assamese cinema in

Guwahati Guwahati (, ; formerly rendered Gauhati, ) is the biggest city of the Indian state of Assam and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the ...

Punjabi cinema Punjabi cinema, sometimes metonymously referred to as Pollywood or Punjwood is the Punjabi-language film industry centered around the Indian state of Punjab, and based in Amritsar and Mohali. The cinema of Punjab has its beginnings with the ...

in Mohali and Bengali cinema in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. Most Indian film directors are known for their work with one regional industry, while many others are active directors of films from multiple industries.

Directors of parallel or independent cinema

Parallel Cinema Parallel cinema, or New Indian Cinema, is a film movement in Indian cinema that originated in the state of West Bengal in the 1950s as an alternative to the mainstream commercial Indian cinema. Inspired by Italian Neorealism, Parallel Cinema ...

is otherwise known as "

Art films An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily f ...

" cinema, and is known for its serious and realistic films with real-life situations. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Indian government financed a number of such films, on Indian themes. Many of the directors were graduates of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. Ritwik Ghatak was a professor at the institute and a well-known director in his own right. The best-known Indian "neo-realist" is Satyajit Ray.

Active in multiple languages

The following is a list of film directors who have directed films from more than one regional film industry in India. This does not include directors who work in a single industry whose films have been dubbed into other languages.

Bengali film directors

: {{columns-list, colwidth=20em, * Hiralal Sen * Dhirendranath Gangopadhyay (D. G.) * Sisir Bhaduri * J. J. Madan * Madhu Bose *

Niranjan Pal Niranjan Pal (17 August 1889 – 9 November 1959) was an Indian playwright, screenwriter, and director in the Indian film industry in the silent and early talkie days. He was a close associate of Himanshu Rai and Franz Osten, with whom he was a fo ...

Premankur Atorthy Premankur Atorthy (1890–1964) was an Indian novelist, journalist, and film director. He was involved in Hindi and Bengali cinema.Prafulla Ghosh *

Bimal Roy Bimal Roy (12 July 1909 – 8 January 1966) was an Indian film director. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films such as '' Do Bigha Zamin'', '' Parineeta'', '' Biraj Bahu'', ''Devdas'', ''Madhumati'', '' Sujata'', '' ...

* Pramathesh Barua * Satyajit Ray * Ritwik Ghatak *

Satyen Bose Satyen Bose (22 January 1916 – 9 June 1993) was a film director from India. He has directed both Bengali and Hindi language films. Among his most notable films are ''Raat Aur Din, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Dosti'', and '' Jagriti''. ''Jagriti'' w ...

Mrinal Sen Mrinal Sen (''Beng.'' মৃণাল সেন; 14 May 1923 – 30 December 2018) was an Indian film director, and screenwriter known for his work primarily in Bengali, and few Hindi and Telugu language films. Regarded as one of the finest Ind ...

Hiren Nag Hiren Naag is a former Bollywood director of Hindi films who is best known for his association with Tarachand Barjatya of Rajshri Productions for which he directed hit film '' Geet Gaata Chal'' (1975), the blockbuster Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon S ...

* Nitin Bose * Tulsi Lahiri * Hemen Gupta * Agradoot * Naresh Mitra *

Yatrik Yatrik, a 1952 Indian film directed by ''Kartick Chatterjee'', depicts a group of pilgrims on an arduous trek in the high Himalayas. It is the Hindi-language version of the Bengali film '' Mahaprasthaner Pathey'', the film made from the book of ...

* Chitta Bose * Niren Lahiri * Ajoy Kar *

* Subodh Mitra * Amar Choudhury * Haridas Bhattacharya *

Tapan Sinha Tapan Sinha (2 October 1924 – 15 January 2009) was one of the most prominent Indian film directors of his time forming a legendary quartet with Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen. He was primarily a Bengali filmmaker who worked both ...

* Prafulla Chakraborty * Asit Sen * Manju Dey *

Salil Dutta Salil Dutta (30 November 1931 – 20 September 2004) was an Indian Bengali director, screenwriter and actor. He is well known for his films Surya Sikha (1963), Stree (1972) and Seyi Chokh (1976). Career Dutta was born in 1931 in British India. H ...

* Alamgir Kabir *

Buddhadev Dasgupta Buddhadeb Dasgupta (11 February 1944 – 10 June 2021) was an Indian filmmaker and poet best known for his Bengali-language films like ''Bagh Bahadur'', '' Tahader Katha'', ''Charachar'' and ''Uttara''. Five of his films have won the National ...

Tarun Majumdar Tarun Majumdar (or Mazumdar, 22 September 1931 – 4 July 2022) was an Indian film director and Screenwriter who is known for his work in Bengali cinema. He received four National Awards, seven BFJA Awards, five Filmfare Awards and an Anandal ...

* Utpal Dutta *

Dilip Ray Dilip Ray (born 9 January 1954) is an Indian politician and hotelier from the state of Odisha. He was formerly Union Minister of Steel, Coal and Parliamentary Affairs. Ray is the only Odia parliamentarian to be part of the Ministry of three Pri ...

* Goutam Ghose *

Basu Chatterjee Basu Chatterjee ( bn, বাসু চ্যাটার্জ্জী; 10 January 1927 – 4 June 2020) was an Indian film director and screenwriter. Through the 1970s and 1980s, Chatterjee became associated with what came to be known as mi ...

Rituparno Ghosh Rituparno Ghosh (31 August 1963 – 30 May 2013) was an Indian film director, actor, writer and lyricist. After pursuing a degree in economics, he started his career as a creative artist at an advertising agency. He received recognition for his ...

Aparna Sen Aparna Sen (, ''Ôporna Shen'') is an Indian film director, screenwriter and actress who is known for her work in Bengali cinema. She has received several accolades as an actress and filmmaker, including nine National Film Awards, five F ...

* Chidananda Dasgupta * Prabhat Roy * Anjan Choudhury *

Shakti Samanta Shakti Samanta (13 January 1926 – 9 April 2009) was an Indian film director and producer, who founded Shakti Films in 1957, which is most known for films such as ''Anand Ashram'' (1977), Anusandhan /'' Barsaat Ki Ek Raat'' (1981), ''anay abhi ...

* Saroj Dey * Ashoke Viswanathan *

Raja Sen Raja Sen (born 10 November 1955) is an Indian film and television director and the winner of three National Film Awards from Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He is the father of actress Rimi Sen. Career Raja Sen first received recognition with ''S ...

Sandip Ray Sandip Ray (born 8 September 1953) is an Indian film director and music director who mainly works in Bengali cinema. He is the only child of the famous Bengali director Satyajit Ray and Bijoya Ray. Life and education Sandip Ray was born in C ...

* Sukhen Das * Bratya Basu *

Kaushik Ganguly Kaushik Ganguly (born 4 August 2012) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and actor in Bengali cinema. Multiple National Award winner Actor-Director, Kaushik Ganguly is known for making films that explore various aspects sexuality, like ' ...

* Bappaditya Bandopadhyay * Arjun Chakraborty * Suman Mukhopadhyay * Kushal Chakraborty * Srijit Mukherji *

Basu Bhattacharya Basu Bhattacharya (1934–19 June 1997) was an Indian film director of Hindi films. He is perhaps best known for his 1966 film ''Teesri Kasam'', starring Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman (based on the short story "Maare Gaye Gulfam" by Phanish ...

* Sekhar Das *

Atanu Ghosh Atanu Ghosh is an Indian filmmaker. His Bengali film '' Mayurakshi'' (2017) was awarded the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali. His film Angshumaner Chhobi, Mayurakshi, Binisutoy, Abby Sen and Rupkatha Noy, bagged multiple ...

* Anjan Dutt * Goutam Halder *

Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury is an Indian film director. He is the director and producer of multiple Bengali and Hindi films. He directed the highly successful Hindi movie ''Pink'' which received accolades from film critics and movie lovers alike. C ...

* Abhijit Guha *

Sudeshna Roy Sudeshna Roy is an Indian film director, actor and writer based in Tollywood. She started her career as an entertainment journalist before collaborating with the director Abhijit Guha and foraying into the film industry. She is a popular art ...

* Kamaleshwar Mukherjee *

Gaurav Pandey Gaurav Pandey is an Indian actor. He trained at Kreating Characters Acting School. He has appeared in ads for brands including Colgate Plax, OLX, KFC, Sprite and Volkswagen. His first film appearance was in the supporting role of Shaunty in ' ...

* Aditya Vikram Sengupta * Haranath Chakraborty * Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri *

Sujit Mondal Sujit Mondal is an Indian film director in Bengali cinema. He started his career as an assistant director. From 2009, he started directing Bengali feature films with ''Saat Paake Bandha''. His also directed ''Paglu 2'' (2012). Mondal was chief ...

* Raj Chakraborty *

Swapan Saha Swapan Saha ( bn, স্বপন সাহা) (born 10 January 1930 in Ajmer, Rajasthan, British India) is an Indian (Bengali) film director, producer, story writer and score composer. Filmography * ''Bedenir Prem'' (1992) * ''Maan Samman' ...

Nandita Roy Nandita Roy (born April 3, 1955) is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter. She made her directorial debut with the film ''Icche'' (2011) along with her co-director Shiboprosad Mukherjee. The two have also directed '' Accident'', '' Muktodhara' ...

Shiboprosad Mukherjee Shiboprosad Mukherjee (, Bengali: ; born 20 May 1974) is an Indian film director, writer and actor. He, collaborating with Nandita Roy, debuted with their film '' Icche'', which garnered both critical acclaim as well as commercial success. Th ...

Sujit Guha Sujit Guha (born 23 July 1950) is an Indian film director known for his works in Bengali cinema. Filmography * '' Deewangee ... The Terror of Love'' (2016) * ''Miss Butterfly'' (2015) * '' Kellafote (2010) * ''Mon Je Kore Uru Uru'' (2010) * ...

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 ...

* Aniket Chattopadhaya * Tathagata Mukherjee * Ravi Kinagi

Punjabi film directors

{{columns-list, colwidth=20em, * Smeep Kang *

Rana Ranbir Rana Ranbir Singh is an Indian Punjabi actor working in Punjabi cinema and Hindi cinema. Early life and education After completing a bachelor's degree from Desh Bhagat College Dhuri, he received a postgraduate degree in theater and television f ...

* Jagdeep Sidhu * Amberdeep Singh *

Gippy Grewal Rupinder Singh "Gippy" Grewal (born 2 January 1983), is an Indian actor, singer, film director and producer whose works span over Punjabi and Hindi film industry. His single "Phulkari" was very successful in the Punjabi music industry. He made ...

* Parmish Verma * Anurag Singh * Simerjit Singh * Sarjit Bains * Ksshitij Chaudhary *

Rohit Jugraj Rohit Jugraj Chauhan is an Indian writer and director in the Punjabi cinema and Bollywood film industry. He has written screenplay for films like Players. He was assistant director to Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Ram Gopal Varma. Personal lif ...

* Vikram Dhillon * Mukesh Gautam * Sukh Sanghera

Gujrati film directors

{{columns-list, colwidth=20em, * Abhishek Jain * Chandulal Shah * Dhwani Gautam *

Govindbhai Patel Govindbhai Patel was Gujarati cinema, Gujarati filmmaker known for his superhits ''Dhola Maru'' and ''Desh Re Joya Dada Pardesh Joya''. Life Govindbhai Patel was born on 11 January 1943. He hailed from Keshod, Gujarat. He administered cinema ha ...

Mulraj Rajda Mulraj Rajda (13 November 1931 – 23 September 2012) was an Indian writer, actor and director who predominantly worked in Hindi and Gujarati films, television shows and theatre. He is regarded as one of the most finest artist in the Gujarati ...

Nanubhai Vakil Nanubhai Vakil (23 May 1902 – 29 December 1980) was a Hindi and Gujarati film director. He was the first to make a Gujarati talkie film with a biopic on the saint Narsinh Mehta in 1932. ''Narsinh Mehta's'' (1932) star cast included the actress ...

* Shantilal Soni * Sooni Taraporevala * Zanane Rajsingh

Kannada film directors

:{{Main, :Kannada film directors {{columns-list, colwidth=20em, * Puttanna Kanagal * V. Ravichandran * Upendra * Yograj Bhat *

Duniya Soori Suri/Soori known as Duniya Suri or Sukka Suri is an Indian movie director. He became known as Duniya Suri in the wake of the success of his debut movie '' Duniya'', for which he won the 2006–2007 Karnataka State Film Awards in the Best Sc ...

* Anup Bhandari * Pawan Kumar * Rakshit Shetty * Dinesh Baboo *

Nagathihalli Chandrasekhar Nagathihalli Chandrashekhar is an Indian director, actor, screenwriter and a lyricist who predominantly works in Kannada Cinema. He made his film debut as a screenplay writer in ''Kadina Benki'' (1986) which won the National Film Award for Best ...

* B Ramamurthy * Dorai–Bhagavan *G. V. Iyer *B. S. Ranga *V. Somashekhar *Kashinath (actor), Kashinath *Girish Kasaravalli *Girish Karnad *S. V. Rajendra Singh Babu *D. Rajendra Babu *Sunil Kumar Desai *Om Prakash Rao *Baraguru Ramachandrappa *Shankar Nag *Prem (Kiran), Prem *Preetham Gubbi *R. Chandru *A. M. R. Ramesh *S. Narayan *Dayal Padmanabhan *Abhaya Simha *P. Vasu *Rishab Shetty *Mohan Shankar *Shashank (director), Shashank *Agni Shridhar *Jayatheertha *Vinay Bharadwaj *Prashanth Neel *T. S. Nagabharana *H. R. Bhargava

Malayalam film directors

:{{Main, :Malayalam film directors {{columns-list, colwidth=20em, * Renjith, Ranjith * John Abraham (director), John Abraham * Aashiq Abu * G. Aravindan * Sathish Kalathil * Sathyan Anthikkad * Dinesh Baboo * Priyadarshan * P. A. Backer * Bharathan * T. V. Chandran * Lal Jose * T. K. Rajeev Kumar * Fazil (director), Fazil * Adoor Gopalakrishnan * K. G. George * Hariharan (director), Hariharan * Kamaluddin Mohammed, Kamal * Shaji Karun * K. P. Kumaran * Lal (director), Lal * Lohithadas * Joy Mathew * Anjali Menon * Balachandra Menon * Gautham Vasudev Menon * P. N. Menon (director), P.N. Menon * Mohan (director), Mohan * K. R. Mohanan * Mahesh Narayanan * M. T. Vasudevan Nair * Amal Neerad * Padmarajan, P. Padmarajan * Rajesh Pillai * Dileesh Pothan * Priyadarsan * Alphonse Putharen * Lenin Rajendran * Anwar Rasheed * Rajeev Ravi * Sankar director, Sankar * I. V. Sasi * K. S. Sethumadhavan * Shyamaprasad * Siddique (director), Siddique * Sreenivasan * Sameer Thahir * Vijayakrishnan * A. Vincent * Rajasenan * Shaji Kailas * K. Madhu * Joshiy * Vineeth Sreenivasan * RK DreamWest

Marathi film directors

:{{Main, :Marathi film directors {{columns-list, colwidth=20em, * Satish Motling * Baburao Painter * Jabbar Patel * V. Shantaram * Dadasaheb Phalke * Dada Kondke * Amol Palekar * Nishikant Kamat * Mahesh Kothare * Sachin Pilgaonkar * Mahesh Manjrekar * Gajendra Ahire * Pralhad Keshav Atre * Ravi Jadhav * P. L. Deshpande * Chandrakant Kulkarni * Sachin Kundalkar * Paresh Mokashi * Bhalji Pendharkar * Raja Paranjape * Ram Gabale * Ramesh Deo * Satish Rajwade * Sayaji Shinde * Sanjay Surkar * Suryakant Mandhare * Smita Talwalkar * Mrinal Kulkarni * Dadasaheb Torne * Vijay Gokhale * Vishnupant Damle * Sujay Dahake * Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni * Avdhoot Gupte * Nitin Chandrakant Desai * Ashutosh Gowarikar * Amol Palekar * Madhur Bhandarkar * Amol Gupte * Sandeep Sawant * Anand Patwardhan * Bhagwan Dada * Master Vinayak * Kunal Deshmukh * Vishram Sawant * Abhinay Deo * Gauri Shinde * Nagraj Manjule * Dinkar D. Patil

Tamil film directors

:{{Main, :Tamil film directors {{columns-list, colwidth=20em, * Thangar Bachan * C. V. Sridhar * A. P. Nagarajan * A. C. Tirulokchandar * K. Balachander * Balu Mahendra * Mahendran (filmmaker), Mahendran * Bharathiraja * Bharathan * A. Bhimsingh * S. P. Muthuraman * S. A. Chandrasekhar * Bhagyaraj * T. Rajendar * P. Vasu * Suresh Krissna * K. S. Ravikumar * Mani Ratnam * S. Shankar * Vetrimaaran * Atlee (director), Atlee * Lokesh Kanagaraj * AR Murugadoss * V. Z. Durai * Seenu Ramasamy * Selvaraghavan * Thiagarajan Kumararaja * Bala (director), Bala * Karthik Subbaraj * Nalan Kumarasamy * Gautham Vasudev Menon * M. Raja * Vasanthabalan * Ram (director), Ram * S. J. Surya * Sankar director, Sankar * R. Ajay Gnanamuthu * Karthick Naren * Kamal Haasan * Balaji Sakthivel * K. V. Anand * P. C. Sreeram * Jeeva (director), Jeeva * Rajiv Menon * Santosh Sivan * Vijay Milton * Dharani (director), Dharani * Hari (director), Hari * Ameer Sultan * Agathian * S. P. Jananathan * Mysskin * Prabu Solomon * Pandiraj * Siruthai Siva * Pa. Ranjith * Samuthirakani * M. Sasikumar, Sasikumar * Sasi (director), Sasi * R. K. Selvamani * Ezhil * Saran (director), Saran * Prabhu Deva * Dhanush * Silambarasan * Suseenthiran * Venkat Prabhu * Vishnuvardhan (director), Vishnuvardhan * Vikraman

Telugu film directors

:{{Main, :Telugu film directors {{columns-list, colwidth=20em, * Surender Reddy * Krishna Vamsi * Ram Gopal Varma * Teja (film director), Teja * Adurthi Subba Rao * Priyadarshan * R. Narayana Murthy * Nandamuri Taraka Ramarao * Bapu (director), Bapu * K. Vijaya Bhaskar * Bhaskar (director), Bhaskar * YVS Chowdary * Prabhu Deva * Gunasekhar * Jandhyala * Puri Jagannadh * Muppalaneni Shiva * A. Karunakaran * Sekhar Kammula * S. V. Krishna Reddy * Raghava Lawrence * G. Neelakanta Reddy, Neelakanta * L. V. Prasad * C. Pullaiah * Vedantam Raghavayya * S. S. Rajamouli * B. S. Ranga * Dasari Narayana Rao * Krishna Chaitanya (lyricist) * K. Raghavendra Rao * Katta Subba Rao * S.Shivgopal Krishna * A. Kodandarami Reddy * Trivikram Srinivas * Sukumar (director), Sukumar * G. C. Sekhar * K. Viswanath, Dr. K. Vishwanath * Chandra Sekhar Yeleti * Harish Shankar * Koratala Siva * Boyapati Srinu * Anil Ravipudi * Srikanth Addala * B. V. Nandini Reddy * Ajay Bhupathi * Prasanth Varma * Radha Krishna Kumar

Jammu and Kashmir film directors

{{columns-list, colwidth=20em, *Mir Sarwar

References

{{reflist {{Asian film directors Lists of Indian film directors, Film directors