Rahul Dholakia is an Indian

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

- producer-

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

, most known for his

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 ...

-winning film, ''

Parzania ''Parzania'' (translation: ''Heaven and hell on earth'') is a 2007 Indian drama film co-written and directed by Rahul Dholakia; David N. Donihue is the other co-writer. The film featured Naseeruddin Shah and Sarika in the lead roles, while Cor ...

'' (Heaven & Hell On Earth) (2005),In India, Showing Sectarian Pain to Eyes That Are Closed

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, 20 February 2007. prior to which he also made

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

like ''Teenage Parents'' and ''New York Taxi Drivers''.

Early life and education

Born in Mumbai, to Raksha and Parry Dholakia, an advertising professional, Rahul also has an elder sister Moha. After completing his schooling from

Campion School, Mumbai , motto_translation = Joy in Truth , established = , type = Private primary and secondary school , religion = Catholicism , denomination = Jesuits , patron ...

and

Jamnabai Narsee School Jamnabai Narsee School is a private school in Juhu, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded on 17 January 1971 and is managed by the Narsee Monjee Education Trust. The school building is unusual and unique in architecture with three clusters o ...

in Mumbai, he went on to do his

Bachelors in Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

from

St. Xavier's College, Mumbai St. Xavier's College is a private, Catholic, autonomous higher education institution run by the Bombay Province of the Society of Jesus in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by the Jesuits on January 2, 1869. The college is aff ...

. He is an

Indian 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 ...

Career

While still in college he started working in his father's

advertising agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...

, Mora Ava. He also worked with producer Babla Sen, for project for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

, London, as production assistant and 10 documentaries later became a producer himself. Later, he started working with Everest Advertising in Mumbai as an assistant, growing up to become a producer. Thereafter, he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1990, where, he did his master's degree in filmmaking from the New York Institute of Technology, and has been in India and

Corona, California Corona (Spanish for "Crown") is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 157,136, up from 152,374 at the 2010 census. The cities of Norco and Riverside lie to the north and north ...

, United States ever since.director-turned-distributor Rahul Dholakia

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

. After making a couple of documentaries and commercials, and even running TV station, called 'TV Asia' for a while, he made his feature film debut with the Hindi-English bilingual, ''Kehtaa Hai Dil Baar Baar'' (2002), starring Paresh Rawal and

Jimmy Shergill Jimmy Sheirgill (born Jasjit Singh Gill; 3 December 1970), also credited as Jimmy Shergill, is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi and Punjabi films. Sheirgill began his film career with the 1996 thriller '' Maachis''. His bre ...

. His next film based on a real-life story of 10-year-old

Parsi Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...

boy, ''Azhar Mody'', known as Parzan, who disappeared during the 28 February 2002

Gulbarg Society massacre The Gulbarg Society massacre took place on 28 February 2002, during the 2002 Gujarat riots, when a crowd started stone pelting the Gulbarg Society, a Muslim neighbourhood in the eastern part of Chamanpura, Ahmedabad. Most of the houses were bu ...

, which took place during communal riots in Gujarat in 2002, ''

'' won him the

for 2006. After shooting in Kashmir, his next film ''

Lamhaa ''Lamhaa'' () is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film written and directed by Rahul Dholakia. It stars Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu, Anupam Kher and Kunal Kapoor in the leading roles. The film follows an Indian Army officer sent under ...

'', where

Sanjay Dutt Sanjay Balraj Dutt (born 29 July 1959) is an Indian actor who primarily works in Hindi cinema. In a career spanning over four decades, Dutt has won several accolades and acted in over 100 films, ranging from romance to comedy genres, though u ...

and

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 accolade ...

played the leads in a story based in Kashmir, was released to mixed reviews. he has directed the film ''Raees'', which was released on 25 January 2017 and received positive reviews.

Filmography

Awards and honours

References

External links

* http://www.rahuldholakia.com/ *
Rahul Dholakia
at

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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dholakia, Rahul Living people Year of birth missing (living people) St. Xavier's College, Mumbai alumni 21st-century Indian film directors Film producers from Mumbai Indian male screenwriters Hindi-language film directors Indian documentary filmmakers Best Director National Film Award winners Film directors from Mumbai New York Institute of Technology alumni Gujarati people