Kanu Behl | |
---|---|
Born | 1980 (age 43–44) Kapurthala, Punjab, India |
Nationality | Indian |
Alma mater | Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute |
Occupation(s) | Director, writer |
Years active | 2005–present |
Spouse | |
Parent(s) | Lalit Behl Navnindra Behl |
Kanu Behl (born 1980) [1] is an Indian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his work in Hindi cinema.
He assisted director Dibaker Banerjee on the cult hit Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and co-wrote LSD: Love Sex aur Dhokha .
His directorial debut, Titli, appeared at several international film festivals, including Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Zurich, Filmfest Hamburg, and BFI London. The script of Titli was selected by NFDC for the Screenwriters' Lab 2012, later winning the Post Production Award at Film Bazaar's Work-In-Progress Lab.
Titli was nominated for Caméra d'Or at 2014 Cannes Film Festival.
Kanu Behl spent his early years in Patiala, Punjab before moving to Delhi in 1990. Both his parents, Navnindra and Lalit Behl [2] are writer-actor-directors and also directed telefilms for the state-run Doordarshan channel. [1]
He studied at Apeejay School, Noida and sought a bachelor's degree in Business from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Delhi University. In 2003, he joined the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute and pursued a PG Diploma in Cinema. [3] While at the Institute, he attended the Berlinale Talent Campus 2007 and made his documentary 'An Actor Prepares', about a struggling actor, who after seven years decides to give himself 15 days to make it in the film industry or return home. The documentary entered competitively at Cinéma du Réel 2007, a documentary film festival in France. [1]
In January 2019 Behl married music composer Sneha Khanwalkar. [4] [5]
After graduating from SRFTI, he produced and directed documentaries for the international channels NHK, Japan and ZDF/Arte. He worked with Dibakar Banerjee on the feature film Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! as an Assistant director. In 2010, he co-wrote the critically acclaimed Love Sex aur Dhokha with Banerjee and was chief assistant director on the project. [6]
In 2012, the script of his first independent feature film Titli , was selected by NFDC for the Screenwriters' Lab 2012, which later won the 'Post-Production Award' at Film Bazaar's Work-In-Progress Lab in 2013. [7] Titli, appeared at several international film festivals, including the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, [8] Melbourne International Film Festival, [9] Rio de Janeiro International, Zurich Film Festival, [10] Filmfest Hamburg, [11] BFI London Film Festival [12] and the Chicago International Film Festival. [13] Written and directed by Behl and co-produced by Dibakar Banerjee Productions and Yash Raj Films, Titli was selected to take part in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. [14] [15]
Year | Film | Credited as | Notes | Ref(s) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Director | Writer | Lyricist | Other | ||||
2008 | Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! | Yes | Assistant director | [16] | |||
Dahleez Paar | Yes | Editor | TV movie | ||||
Three Blind Men | Yes | Yes | Short film | [17] | |||
2010 | Love Sex Aur Dhokha | Yes | Yes | First assistant director | [18] | ||
2014 | Titli | Yes | Yes | Directorial debut | [19] | ||
2019 | Binnu Ka Sapna | Yes | Yes | Short film | [20] | ||
2023 | Agra | Yes | Yes | Premiered ar Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes and screened at the BIFF in October 2023. | [21] [22] | ||
TBA | Despatch | Yes | Yes | [23] | |||
The Filmfare Award for Best Story is given by Filmfare as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to recognise a writer who wrote a film's story.
Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) is a film and television institute located in Baghajatin, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Named after Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, the institute provides higher and professional education and technical expertise in the art and technique of film-making and television production. Established in 1995, the institute is an autonomous society funded by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.
Anurag Kashyap is an Indian film director and actor known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is the recipient of four Filmfare Awards. For his contributions to film, the Government of France awarded him the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2013.
Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language crime comedy film starring Abhay Deol, Paresh Rawal, Neetu Chandra, Manu Rishi, Manjot Singh and Archana Puran Singh. It was directed by Dibakar Banerjee. The film won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film. The film is inspired by the real life shenanigans of Devinder Singh alias Bunty, a real-life "super-chor", originally from Vikaspuri, Delhi.
Sneha Khanwalkar is an Indian music director who works in Hindi films. She is best known for her score for the film, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, and also for Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1, Part 2. She had been nominated in Best Music Director category at the 58th Filmfare Awards for Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1 & Part 2. She is only the second woman to gain a nomination in this category 28 years after Usha Khanna.
Richa Chadha is an Indian actress who works in Hindi cinema. She made her acting debut with a small role in the comedy film Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008), Chadha's breakthrough came in 2012 with a supporting role in the crime film Gangs of Wasseypur, in which her role as the bellicose and foul-tongued wife of a gangster earned her the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress.
Urmi Juvekar is an Indian screenwriter and documentary filmmaker best known for writing the screenplays of Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008), I Am (2010) and Shanghai (2012).
Dibakar Banerjee is an Indian film director, screenwriter, producer and advertisement-filmmaker known for his work in Hindi films. Banerjee started his career in advertising, being a feature filmmaker, he still continues to be an ad-filmmaker. He also runs his own film production company, Dibakar Banerjee Productions.
Love Sex Aur Dhokha is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language anthology found footage drama film directed by Dibakar Banerjee and written by Banerjee and Kanu Behl. Jointly produced by Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor and Priya Sreedharan under the banner of ALT Entertainment, the film stars mostly newcomers including Anshuman Jha, Nushrat Bharucha, Rajkummar Rao, Neha Chauhan, Amit Sial, Herry Tangri and Ashish Sharma. It has three separate but interlinked stories about an honour killing, an MMS scandal and sting operations.
Lalit Behl was an Indian actor, director, producer and writer.
Atul Mongia is a creator, writer, director, producer and acting mentor based in Mumbai. He was the showrunner, creator, head writer and co-director of the show MAI which was ranked #1 on Netflix for weeks in the Top Ten Show of India. He's associated with Hindi cinema for a period spanning two decades with films like Queen, Lootera, Titli, Love Sex Aur Dhokha, Queen, Shor in the City, Ragini MMS, Shanghai, Qarib Qarib Singlle, Gully Boy and Gehraiyaan to his credit. His strength lies in training actors and helping the actors deliver more truthful performances. He has also established himself as one of the industry's most acclaimed erstwhile casting directors who introduced actors like Rajkummar Rao, Vikrant Massey, Radhika Apte, Nushrratt Bharuccha to Indian Cinema.
Namrata Rao is an Indian film editor, who works in Hindi cinema, where starting with Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008), she edited films like Ishqiya (2010), Band Baaja Baaraat (2010), Ladies vs Ricky Bahl (2011) and Kahaani (2012). She is most famous for editing and acting in the film Love Sex Aur Dhokha (2010) for which she received the Filmfare Award for Best Editing in 2011. She received National Film Award for Best Editing and Filmfare Award for Best Editing for the critically acclaimed Kahaani (2012).
Navnindra Behl is an Indian theatre and television director, writer and actor.
Priyanka Bose is an Indian actress and model. Active on stage and in films, she is best known for her role in the Italian film Gangor, among others. Priyanka started her film career with small roles in Love Sex Aur Dhokha, Sorry Bhai!, Johnny Gaddar and Guzaarish. Her first film in a lead role was Gangor by the Italian director, Italo Spinelli in 2010. She gained recognition as an actress with her performance as a tribal woman in the film and went on to win the best actress award at the New Jersey Independent South Asian Film Festival.
Titli (transl. Butterfly) is a 2014 Indian neo-noir crime drama film written and directed by Kanu Behl, and co-produced by Dibakar Banerjee Productions and Aditya Chopra under the banner of Yash Raj Films. It features actors Shashank Arora as the title character, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Ranvir Shorey, Amit Sial and Lalit Behl in the lead roles.
Shashank Arora is an Indian actor, musician and writer. He is known for his roles in Titli (2014), Brahman Naman (2016), Moothon (2019) and Made in Heaven (2019). He is the only Indian actor to have films officially compete at Cannes and Sundance Film Festival.
Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language mystery action thriller film directed and co-written by Dibakar Banerjee, and produced by Banerjee and Aditya Chopra. The story is based on the fictional detective Byomkesh Bakshi created by the Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay.
Manto is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language biographical drama film based on the life of the prominent Urdu author Saadat Hasan Manto, written and directed by Nandita Das. The film stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the title character of Indo-Pakistani, author and writer Saadat Hasan Manto. Tahir Raj Bhasin plays the 1940s Hindi film superstar Shyam Chadda. Shyam was Manto's friend, confidant, and inspiration for a number of stories. Rasika Dugal plays the role of Manto's wife, Safia. Manto is based on the 1940s post-Independence period of India. Manto earned seven nominations at 64th Filmfare Awards including Best Film Critics, Best Actor Critics for Siddiqui.
Agra is a 2023 Hindi-language Indian drama film, co-written and directed by Kanu Behl. It features debutant Mohit Agarwal, Priyanka Bose, Ruhani Sharma, Vibha Chibber, Sonal Jha and Aanchal Goswami in pivotal roles. The film follows Guru, a young single call center employee who still lives with his parents. Consumed by frustration, he plunges into a fever bordering on insanity, between pathetic fantasies, dating apps and hysterical self-harm.