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 '' Munna Bhai film series'', ''

3 Idiots ''3 Idiots'' (stylized as ''3 idiots'') is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age comedy-drama film written, edited and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, co-written by Abhijat Joshi and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Adapted loosely from ...

'' (2009), '' PK'' (2014), ''

Sanju ''Sanju'' is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language biographical film directed and edited by Rajkumar Hirani, written by Hirani and Abhijat Joshi and produced by Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra under the banners Rajkumar Hirani Films and Vinod Chopra Film ...

'' (2018) under his banner Vinod Chopra Films.

Early life

Chopra was born and grew up in Srinagar,

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

, India. His father was D. N. Chopra and veteran filmmaker

Ramanand Sagar Chandramauli Chopra ( ; 29 December 1917 – 12 December 2005) known professionally as Ramanand Sagar, was an Indian filmmaker, editor, playwright, poet and an author. He is best known for making the television show ''Ramayan'' (1987-1988). The ...

was his half-brother. His father's family originally came from

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. His mother was Shanti Devi Mahalakshmi who left Kashmir with him and family after the exodus and mass killings of Kashmiri Pandits due to the

Kashmir conflict The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir region, primarily between India and Pakistan, with China playing a third-party role. The conflict started after the partition of India in 1947 as both India and Pakistan claim ...

in 1990. He dedicated his movie ''

Shikara The shikara is a type of wooden boat found on Dal Lake and other water bodies of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir Shikaras are of various sizes and are used for multiple purposes, including transportation. A usual shikara seats six people, with t ...

'' to his mother which is based on the same theme. 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'', won the National Film Award for Best Short Experimental Film and the Guru Dutt Memorial Award for Best Student Film. This was followed by a short documentary highlighting the plight of India's destitute children, called ''

An Encounter with Faces ''An Encounter with Faces'' is a 1978 short documentary film directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and produced by K.K. Kapil. It focuses on a group of children in an orphanage. It was nominated in 1979 for an Academy Award The Academy Awards, b ...

'', which was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment in ...

in the Documentary Short Subject category in 1979. It also won the Grand Prix at the Tampere Film Festival in 1980. '' 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. For '' Khamosh'', 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 Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

set in Kashmir, ''Khamosh'' remains one of the notable Indian films in the

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other ...

. '' Parinda'' (1989), is a landmark film in

Hindi cinema 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 ...

. It expanded the orbit of the crime drama and the vocabulary of images used in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...

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'', was a patriotic romantic drama set during the decline of the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi language, Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Q ...

. With

Anil Kapoor Anil Kapoor (born 24 December 1956) is an Indian actor and producer who works primarily in Hindi films, besides television and international films and television. In a career spanning over 40 years as an actor and since 2005 as a producer, Kap ...

and Manisha Koirala in leading 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 The Filmfare Best Music Album Award is given by the ''Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to the best composer/arranger of a soundtrack. This category was first presented in 1954. Naushad Ali was the fi ...

and the film won a total of nine awards at the 40th Filmfare Awards. 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. Bengali filmmaker

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 ...

affectionately gave him the name 'Vidhu'.

Films

His critically acclaimed films include '' Parinda'', '' 1942: A Love Story'', '' Mission Kashmir'', the '' Munna Bhai'' series, ''

Parineeta Parineeta may refer to: * ''Parineeta'' (novel), a 1914 Bengali-language novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay * ''Parineeta'' (1942 film), directed by Pashupati Chatterjee, based on the novel * ''Parineeta'' (1953 film), directed by Bimal Roy, base ...

'', and ''

''. ''3 Idiots'' went on to become one of the most successful films in India, and became the first film in the country to cross Rs. 200 crore at the boxoffice. It also found popular appeal in markets like Taiwan and Korea. His other films,PK and Sanju were one of the highest grossing Indian films. He also made his Hollywood directorial debut with the film '' Broken Horses'' in 2015. However, it received a

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

rating of 22%, and was a commercial disaster, only making Rs. 60 lakh in its opening weekend. His latest film, ''

'' is a Hindi language historical romance film released on 7 February 2020 marking his return to direction in India after 13 years. His last directorial feature film, '' Eklavya: The Royal Guard'' released in 2007.

Filmography

Bibliography

Awards and nominations

Vidhu Vinod Chopra has received one nomination at the

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

, six National Film Awards, and five awards from fourteen nominations at the

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 ...

IIFA Awards The International Indian Film Academy Awards, popularly known as IIFA, is an annual awards ceremony for Bollywood. Produced by Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, the winners of the awards are decided by fans, who vote online for th ...

* 2007: Winner,

IIFA Best Screenplay Award The IIFA Best Screenplay Award is a technical award chosen ahead of the ceremonies. The winners are listed below:- See also * IIFA Awards * Bollywood * Cinema of India The Cinema of India consists of motion pictures produced in India, ...

for '' Lage Raho Munna Bhai'' * 2001: ''Nominated'',

IIFA Best Director Award The International Indian Film Academy Awards, popularly known as IIFA, is an annual awards ceremony for Bollywood. Produced by Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, the winners of the awards are decided by fans, who vote online for th ...

for '' Mission Kashmir'' * 2010: Winner,

for ''

Stardust Awards

* 2009: Winner, Readers' Choice Award for ''

FICCI Awards

* 2009: Winner, Most Successful Film of the Year for ''

Zee Cine Awards The Zee Cine Award (ZCA) is an Indian awards ceremony for the Hindi film industry. They were instituted in November 1997 to award "Excellence in cinema - the democratic way". They were first held in Mumbai until 2004, when the ZCA went internat ...

* 2007: Winner, Best Screenplay Award for '' Lage Raho Munna Bhai'' * 2005: Winner, Best Dialogue Award for ''

'' * 2005: Winner, Best Director Award for '' Mission Kashmir''

Tampere International Short Film Festival

* 1980: Winner, Grand Prix for ''

Star Screen Awards

* 2006: Winner, Best Film for ''

Lage Raho Munnabhai ''Lage Raho Munna Bhai'' (; ) is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language satirical comedy drama film written, edited and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, who co-wrote the screenplay with Abhijat Joshi and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It is the follow- ...

'' * 2006: ''Nominated'',

Best Screenplay 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 ...

for '' Lage Raho Munna Bhai'' * 2009: Winner, Star Screen Award for Best Film, ''3 Idiots'' * 2009: Winner, Star Screen Award for Best Screenplay, ''3 Idiots''

Personal life

He has been married thrice, his first wife was actress 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 The Films Division of India (FDI), commonly referred as Films Division, was established in 1948 following the independence of India. It was the first state film production and distribution unit, under the Ministry of Information and Broadcastin ...

. He has a daughter with Shabnam, Ishaa Chopra, who works as a dance instructor and choreographer. He is currently married to Indian film critic Anupama Chopra, whom he married on 1 June 1990. He has two children with her, a son, Agni and a daughter,

Zuni Chopra Zuni Chopra is an Indian author best known for her novel ''The House That Spoke''. She has also authored three other books. Zuni is the daughter of filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra and journalist Anupama Chopra. One of her poems titled, ''The Mounta ...

References

External links

*
Official Website

at

Rediff Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City. , it had more than 300 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chopra, Vidhu Vinod 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 Punjabi people 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