Zoya Akhtar | |
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Born | |
Alma mater | |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1996–present |
Notable work | |
Parents | |
Relatives | See Akhtar family |
Zoya Akhtar (born 14 October 1972) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. Born to Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani, she completed a diploma in filmmaking from NYU and assisted directors Mira Nair, Tony Gerber and Dev Benegal, before becoming an independent writer and director. She is the recipient of several accolades, including four Filmfare Awards. [1] Akhtar, along with Reema Kagti, founded Tiger Baby Films, a film and web studio in October 2015.
She made her directorial debut with the drama Luck by Chance (2009), and achieved her breakthrough with the ensemble buddy road comedy-drama Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011), winning the Filmfare Award for Best Debut Director for the former, and the Filmfare Award for Best Director for the latter. She followed it up with co-writing the psychological crime thriller Talaash: The Answer Lies Within (2012) alongside Reema Kagti, and directing Sheila Ki Jawaani, a segment of the anthology film Bombay Talkies (2013).
Akhtar then went on to direct the ensemble family comedy-drama Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), segments in the anthology films Lust Stories (2018) and Ghost Stories (2020), and the musical drama Gully Boy (2019), winning her second Filmfare Award for Best Director for the latter, thus becoming the only female director to have won the award twice. She ventured into the OTT space with the romantic comedy-drama series Made in Heaven (2019–present) and the crime thriller series Dahaad (2023–present). In 2023, she helmed the live-action feature film adaptation of The Archies for Netflix.
She is also a board member of Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI). [2]
Akhtar was born to poet, lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar and screenwriter Honey Irani. Akhtar's stepmother is actress Shabana Azmi. [3] Her younger brother, Farhan Akhtar, is an actor and director. She attended Maneckji Cooper Education Trust School and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Xavier's College, both from Mumbai. Later, she joined the New York University Tisch School of the Arts to learn film production.
Her great-grandfather, Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, a scholar of Islamic studies and theology, edited the first diwan of Mirza Ghalib on his request and later became a figure during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 in his native Khairabad. [4]
She is the great-granddaughter of Urdu poet Muztar Khairabadi, granddaughter of poet Jan Nisar Akhtar, niece of Daisy Irani, and cousin of directors Farah Khan and Sajid Khan.
Akhtar grew up in an agnostic environment and along with her brother Farhan and father Javed, and does not believe in any religion. [5] [6]
Akhtar started her career as the co-director of a music video called Price of Bullets for a rock band called Pentagram. She has worked as a casting director for films including the drama Split Wide Open (1999) and the ensemble coming-of-age comedy-drama Dil Chahta Hai (2001), and as an assistant director for her brother Farhan Akhtar's films Dil Chahta Hai and the coming-of-age war drama Lakshya (2004). She then worked as an executive producer for her longtime friend and associate Reema Kagti's comedy-drama Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007), also produced by Excel Entertainment. [7]
Akhtar made her directorial debut with the drama Luck By Chance (2009), starring her brother Farhan and Konkona Sen Sharma in lead roles. The film tells the story of a struggling actor who breaks into the industry. It opened to widespread critical acclaim from critics, with high praise directed towards its novel concept, story, screenplay and dialogues; however, the film had an underwhelming performance at the box-office. [8] [9] [10] It earned Akhtar the inaugural Filmfare Award for Best Debut Director, tying for the award with Ayan Mukerji for Wake Up Sid .
In 2011, she achieved her breakthrough with the coming-of-age comedy-drama Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara , which starred an ensemble cast of Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin in lead roles. [11] The film opened to widespread critical acclaim, with praise for its novel concept, storyline and setting. It emerged as a major commercial success at the box-office, grossing ₹1.53 billion (US$19 million) worldwide, ranking as the fifth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year. [12] Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara earned Akhtar her first Filmfare Award for Best Director.
The following year, she and Kagti co-wrote the psychological crime thriller Talaash: The Answer Lies Within (2012), starring an ensemble cast of Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Rani Mukerji, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajkummar Rao and Shernaz Patel in lead roles. The film received highly positive reviews upon release and emerged as a commercial success at the box-office. [13]
In 2013, Akhtar teamed up with Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar for the anthology film Bombay Talkies . It was made as a celebration of 100 years of Indian cinema. [14] [15] Her segment titled Sheila Ki Jawaani, told the story of a 12-year-old child who idolised Hindi film actress Katrina Kaif and aspires to be a Bollywood dancer, earned her positive reviews from critics. However, the film emerged as a commercial failure at the box-office. [16]
Akhtar next directed the ensemble family comedy-drama Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), which told the story of a dysfunctional Punjabi family. The film starred an ensemble cast, with Anil Kapoor as an egotistical industrialist, Shefali Shah as his bitter socialite-wife, and Priyanka Chopra and Ranveer Singh as their children. The film also featured Anushka Sharma and Farhan Akhtar as love interests of Singh and Chopra. [17] [18] The film opened to positive reviews from critics, and emerged as a commercial success at the box-office, grossing ₹1.44 billion (US$18 million) worldwide, ranking as the ninth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year. [19]
The same year, Akhtar, along with Reema Kagti, founded Tiger Baby Films, an Indian film production company.
In 2018, she then again teamed up with Kashyap, Banerjee and Johar for the anthology film Lust Stories , the sequel to Bombay Talkies, which premiered on Netflix in June 2018. Her segment in the film, which told the story of the relationship between a bachelor (Neil Bhoopalam) and his maid (Bhumi Pednekar), received positive reviews.
In 2019, Akhtar directed the musical drama Gully Boy starring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt in lead roles. [20] The film was loosely based on the lives of Mumbai rapper Naezy. [21] It received positive reviews from critics upon release, and emerged as a commercial success at the box-office, grossing ₹2.38 billion (US$33.8 million) worldwide, ranking as the ninth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year. [22] At the 65th Filmfare Awards, Gully Boy won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, the most awards for a single film in a year, breaking the previous record of Black (2005) with 11 wins. The film won Akhtar (along with Kagti) the Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay, in addition to her second Filmfare Award for Best Director, thus becoming the only female director to win the award twice.
The same year, Akhtar and Kagti created the romantic comedy-drama web series Made in Heaven, alongside Nithya Mehra, Reema Kagti and Alankrita Srivastava which told the story of two wedding planners in New Delhi. [23] [24] The series, which stars an ensemble cast of Arjun Mathur, Sobhita Dhulipala, Jim Sarbh, Shashank Arora, Kalki Koechlin and Shivani Raghuvanshi in lead roles, was produced by Tiger Baby Films and Excel Entertainment, and premiered on Amazon Prime Video. The first season of the series released in 2019, followed by the second season in 2023, after several delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The series received widespread critical acclaim, with high praise for its dark take on the Big Fat Indian Wedding.
She was also invited to be a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. [25]
In 2020, she reteamed with Kashyap, Banerjee and Johar for the horror anthology film Ghost Stories, the sequel to Lust Stories. [26] Ghost Stories premiered on Netflix on 1 January 2020. [27] Her segment in the film told the story of an ailing bedridden elderly lady (Surekha Sikri) and her nurse (Janhvi Kapoor). Unlike its predecessors, it received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics upon release.
In 2023, she and Kagti co-created the crime thriller web series Dahaad starring Sonakshi Sinha, Gulshan Devaiah, Vijay Varma and Sohum Shah in lead roles. The series premiered on Amazon Prime Video and received positive reviews from critics upon release. It also became the first ever Indian web series to premiere at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival, where it will compete for the Berlinale Series Award.
Akhtar next directed the live-action feature film adaptation of The Archies which released on Netflix on 7 December 2023. [28] The film stars debutants Agastya Nanda, Khushi Kapoor, Suhana Khan, Vedang Raina, Mihir Ahuja, Aditi Saigal and Yuvraj Menda as Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle, Jughead Jones, Ethel Muggs and Dilton Doiley respectively. It opened to mixed reviews from critics upon release.
She next collaborated with Kagti, Arjun Varain Singh and Yash Sahai on the coming-of-age buddy drama Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, directed by Singh and starring Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday, and Adarsh Gourav in lead roles. [29] The film was released on Netflix on 26 December 2023 and received positive reviews from critics upon release. [30]
Year | Film | Director | Writer | Producer | Note(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2007 | Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. | No | No | Executive | |
2009 | Luck By Chance | Yes | Yes | Executive | Directorial debut |
2011 | Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara | Yes | Yes | No | co-writer : Reema Kagti |
2012 | Talaash: The Answer Lies Within | No | Yes | No | |
2013 | Bombay Talkies | Yes | Yes | No | anthology film; Segment: Sheila Ki Jawaani |
2015 | Dil Dhadakne Do | Yes | Yes | No | co-writer : Reema Kagti |
2018 | Lust Stories | Yes | Yes | No | anthology film; Segment 2 |
2019 | Gully Boy | Yes | Yes | Yes | co-writer : Reema Kagti |
2020 | Ghost Stories | Yes | Yes | No | anthology film; Segment 1 |
2023 | The Archies | Yes | Yes | Yes | Live-action musical film adaptation [31] |
Kho Gaye Hum Kahan | No | Yes | Yes | Released on Netflix [32] | |
2024 | Superboys of Malegaon | No | No | Yes | Released on Amazon Prime Video [29] |
Year | Show | Creator | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes | Platform |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2019–present | Made in Heaven | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-created with Reema Kagti | Amazon Prime Video |
2023 | Dahaad | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
She appeared on the Valentine's Day charity show of Kaun Banega Crorepati along with her brother Farhan Akhtar. [33] She also appeared in a very brief role as Rasa Devi's (Rekha's) courtesan in Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love in September 1996. [34] She and Shah Rukh Khan had a 'fireside chat' with Jeff Bezos of Amazon in January 2020. [35] [36] [37]
The Filmfare Best Director Award is one of the main awards presented given by the annual Filmfare Awards to recognise directors working in Hindi cinema. It was first presented in 1954 in the inaugural year.
Farhan Akhtar is an Indian actor, filmmaker and singer who works in Hindi films. Born to screenwriters Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani, he established the production company Excel Entertainment, along with Ritesh Sidhwani, in 1999.
Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy is an Indian musical trio consisting of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa. They have composed music for over 50 soundtracks across five languages: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and English. Amongst the most critically acclaimed Indian musicians, the trio have won numerous awards, including National Film Awards, Filmfare Awards, and IIFA Awards. They are often referred to as the "Amar Akbar Anthony" (AAA) of the Hindi film music industry. They are known for their compositions in Dil Chahta Hai (2001), Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), My Name Is Khan (2010), Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) and Dil Dhadakne Do (2015).
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Excel Entertainment is an Indian production company, founded by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar in Mumbai in 1999. They mainly produce Hindi films.
Ritesh Sidhwani is an Indian film producer. He is the co-founder of Excel Entertainment along with Farhan Akhtar. His first film as a producer, Dil Chahta Hai, won the National Award in 2001. Through his vision, Excel Entertainment now is one of the first major Indian production companies in the over-the-top (OTT) content space.
The 57th Filmfare Awards were held on 29 January 2012 at Film City, Mumbai honoring the best film of 2011 from the Hindi-language film industry. The ceremony was jointly hosted by Shahrukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor. Incidentally, both of them have hosted the award ceremonies previously but with different co-hosts, hence making it the first time for this pair to host the show. The 57th Filmfare awards were televised on 19 February 2012 to the public.
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language road comedy drama film directed by Zoya Akhtar and produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under Excel Entertainment. The film stars an ensemble cast of Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Farhan Akhtar, Katrina Kaif, and Kalki Koechlin. The film's story follows three childhood friends, Arjun, Kabir, and Imran, who reunite for a three-week road trip. They set off to Spain and meet Laila, who falls in love with Arjun and helps him overcome his compulsion to work. Kabir and his fiancée Natasha experience significant misunderstandings, while Imran wishes to meet his biological father, an artist.
Reema Kagti is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Hindi film industry. She made her debut as a director in the critically acclaimed Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007), which was followed by the neo-noir, Talaash (2012) and the historical sports drama Gold (2018). Reema along with Zoya Akhtar founded Tiger Baby Films, a film and web studio, in October 2015.
"Ik Junoon (Paint It Red)" (transl. A Passion) is a song by composer trio Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy for the film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. The song was performed by Vishal Dadlani, Alyssa Mendonsa and Gulraj Singh while the lyrics was penned by Javed Akhtar.
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara is the soundtrack album to Zoya Akhtar's 2011 Hindi film of the same name starring Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol and Farhan Akhtar. The film has seven songs and two remixes composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. The album marks the second collaboration of the trio with Zoya Akhtar. The music was released on 17 June 2011 by T-Series.
"Señorita" (transl. Miss) is a song from the 2011 Indian film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. It was composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy and performed by Farhan Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol and Spanish singer María del Mar Fernández. The lyrics were penned by Javed Akhtar. The Latino-flavoured Spanish flamenco song is about being yourself and having fun.
María del Mar Fernández is a Spanish flamenco singer best known for her rendering of the song "Señorita" from the 2011 Hindi film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.
The 2012 IIFA Awards, officially the 13th International Indian Film Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the International Indian Film Academy honouring the films of 2011 took place between 7–9 June 2012. The official ceremony took place on 9 June 2012, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore for the second time after 2004. The ceremony was televised in India and internationally on Star Plus. Actors Shahid Kapoor and Farhan Akhtar co-hosted the ceremony the first time. The IIFA Red Carpet was hosted by Karan Tacker
Katrina Kaif is a British actress who predominantly appears in Bollywood films. She made her film debut in the 2003 heist film Boom, a box office bomb. She then played the titular princess in the Telugu film Malliswari (2004). Kaif had her first success in Bollywood when she appeared opposite Salman Khan in David Dhawan's romantic comedy Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya?. The 2006 musical romance Humko Deewana Kar Gaye saw Kaif pair opposite Akshay Kumar for the first of many films, though the film was a critical and financial failure. Beginning with Namastey London, the year 2007 marked a turning point in her career when all four releases proved to be successful at the box-office. Among these were two of the highest grossing productions of the year, the comedies Partner and Welcome. following year, Kaif appeared in three films including the action comedy Singh Is Kinng.
Hrithik Roshan is an Indian actor known for his work in Hindi-language films. As a child, he made uncredited appearances in three films directed by his maternal grandfather, J. Om Prakash, the first of which was in Aasha (1980). In 1986, Roshan played the adopted son of Rajinikanth's character in Prakash's crime drama Bhagwaan Dada. Roshan subsequently worked as an assistant director on four films, including Khudgarz (1987) and Karan Arjun (1995), all of which were directed by his father, Rakesh.
Dil Dhadakne Do is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language comedy drama film directed by Zoya Akhtar and produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar under the Excel Entertainment banner. The film has an ensemble cast of Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Priyanka Chopra, Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma and Farhan Akhtar with a voice-over narration by Aamir Khan. The supporting cast includes Rahul Bose, Zarina Wahab, Vikrant Massey, Pawan Chopra, Parmeet Sethi, Dolly Mattdo and Manoj Pahwa. The film tells the story of the Mehras, a dysfunctional family who invite their family and friends on a 10-day cruise trip to celebrate the parents' 30th wedding anniversary and later reconcile.
Tiger Baby is an Indian film production company owned by film directors Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti. The company was founded in October 2015.