Ritesh Shah

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Ritesh Shah
Ritesh Shah, a screenplay writer of Hindi Films.jpg
Ritesh Shah
Born
Alma mater Hindu College (1993-1996), Jamia Millia Islamia
Occupation Screenwriter
Years active1997
AwardsZee Cine Award for Dialogue for Pink in 2017

Ritesh Shah is an Indian screenwriter who works in Hindi films. He has written the screenplay and dialogues for films like Kahaani (2012), [1] Pink (2016), [2] Airlift (2017) and Raid (2018). He won the Filmfare award, Star Screen Award and Zee Cine Award in the Best Dialogue category for Pink. [3] [4]

Contents

Early life and education

Shah was born in Anantnag, in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, into a Kashmiri family. His family was forced to migrate to Delhi during their exodus in the summer of 1990. [5] He did his Bachelors in English Literature from Hindu College (1993-1996) and has done his Masters in Mass Communications from MCRC, Jamia Milia Islamia. He began his career as a playwright with Act One Art Group, New Delhi. His works include the fringe award winner Othello - A play in black and white. Ritesh switched to television in 1999. His television writing credits include Josh, Kashmeer, Krishna Arjun and the award-winning series Kagaar.

Career

Ritesh started his career as a playwright in Delhi. He adopted Sławomir Mrożek's political black comedy which pulled the attention of the Indian film industry. One of the actors in the play suggested him to shift the base to Mumbai where Ritesh started writing from the TV serial Kagaar. His first film as a writer was Sujoy Ghosh's Home Delivery . Anurag Kashyap recommended him to Vipul Shah for writing the dialogues of 2007 film Namastey London. He has also adopted 2013 film B.A. Pass from a short story "The Railway Aunty" written by Mohan Sikka. Initially he was planning to turn three stories into a film from a short story collection titled Delhi Noir. Then he wrote a screenplay of 45 pages based on "The Railway Aunty" and presented it to the director Ajay Bahl who liked the script and went ahead making it a film. [6] He has also done a cameo role in Pink. [7] [8]

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryOutcomeWork
2017 Filmfare Awards Best DialogueWon Pink
2014Best Screenplay (Shared with Nikkhil Advani, Suresh Nair, Niranjan Iyengar)Nominated D-Day
2017Screen AwardsBest DialogueWon Pink
2014 Zee Cine Awards Best Screenplay (Shared with Nikkhil Advani, Suresh Nair, Niranjan Iyengar)Nominated D-Day
2017 IIFA Awards Best Screenplay Won Pink
Best Dialogue Won

Filmography

TitleYearStoryScreenplayDialogue
Home Delivery 2005Yes
Namastey London 2007Yes
Summer 2007 2007Yes
Aladin 2009YesYes
Action Replayy 2010Yes
Force 2011YesYesYes
Kahaani 2012Yes
B.A. Pass 2013YesYesYes
Commando: A One Man Army 2013YesYesYes
D-Day 2013YesYesYes
CityLights 2014YesYesYes
Lai Bhaari 2014Yes
Airlift 2016YesYes
Rocky Handsome 2016YesYesYes
Te3n 2016Yes
Madaari 2016YesYes
Pink 2016YesYesYes
Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh 2016Yes
Commando 2: The Black Money Trail 2017YesYes
Daddy 2017Yes
Chef 2017YesYesYes
Anukul 2017Yes
Raid 2018YesYesYes
Namaste England 2018Yes
Junglee 2019Yes
Arjun Patiala 2019YesYesYes
Batla House 2019YesYesYes
The Big Bull [9] 2021Yes
Sardar Udham 2021YesYes
Dhaakad 2022Yes
Faraaz 2023Yes
Lost 2023Yes
Kadak Singh 2023YesYesYes
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References

  1. Iyer, Sanyukta (2 October 2017). "Tucks and treats with Ajay Devgn in Lucknow". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
  2. Maitra, Adila (1 October 2017). "#NoMeansNo: Now, a book on Pink, the movie that changed lives". India Today. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
  3. "62nd Filmfare Awards 2017: Complete winners' list". The Times of India. 29 January 2017. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
  4. "Star Screen Awards 2016 winners list: Pink wins big, Big B-Alia get best actor and actress award". India Today. 5 December 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
  5. "Writing is a lonely, thankless job: Ritesh Shah". The Tribune India . 3 June 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
  6. Ghosh, Devarsi (25 March 2018). "Ritesh Shah on the success of 'Raid' and writing for Bollywood: 'Ghosts don't scare me, people do'". Scroll. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
  7. Bhanot, Saurav (27 September 2016). "Meet Ritesh Shah, The Man Behind The Powerful Dialogues Of Pink". ScoopWhoop. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
  8. Saxena, Deep (3 October 2017). "Pink 'air-lifted' this Kahaani writer's career". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
  9. "Ajay Devgn announces film on Ramsay family: A fascinating journey of hardships". India Today. IANS. 7 November 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2020.