Dibakar Banerjee

Dibakar Banerjee
Born New Delhi, India
Nationality Indian
Occupation film director, screenwriter
Years active 2006–present
Known for Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!

Dibakar Banerjee is an Indian film director and screenwriter, who is most known for films, Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006), Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008), which he also wrote, both of which won National Film Awards.[1][2] He started his career in advertising, and continues as an ad filmmaker, in 2010 he also directed a Coca-Cola commercial.[3][4]

In 2010, he made his third film, Love Sex aur Dhokha, where one of the three sub-plots in the movie is loosely based on the infamous 2004 Delhi MMS scandal.[5]

Early life and education

Dibakar Banerjee was born and brought up at New Rohtak Road near Karol Bagh, in West Delhi, and studied at Bal Bharati Public School, Delhi.[6][7][8]

After finishing his schooling, he joined the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad to study visual communications and graphic design, but left it two and a half years later. Back in New Delhi, he worked briefly with audio-visual filmmaker Sam Mathews.[8][9]

Career

He joined advertising as a copywriter first with Shems Combit, TBWA Anthem, and then he joined Contract Advertising, Delhi, where he worked with Pradeep Sarkar, who was then a creative director at the agency. Screenwriter Jaideep Sahni was also one of his colleagues, who later penned Khosla Ka Ghosla's story, screenplay, dialogues and lyrics.

In 1997, he left Contract to launch his own company, 'Watermark', with two ex- NID friends, promos for Channel V and MTV and Ad films for major brands. With friend and ex-colleague Jaideep Sinha he conceptualised his debut film "about Delhi, based in Delhi", Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006) starring Anupam Kher and Boman Irani, shot in locations in and around New Delhi. The film went on to receive not just accolades for him but also a National Film Award amongst others,[1][10] and brought him in the list of new filmmakers who were bringing about a marked shift in Bollywood themes, which typically focuses on stories & characters from in and around Mumbai.[11][12]

In 2008, he co-wrote and directed his second feature, also set in his hometown Delhi,[3] Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, with Abhay Deol and Paresh Rawal, it was premiered at the IFFI, Goa,[6] and also at MoMA, New York.[13] Commercially it was released in the 26/11 weekend, though it went on to become a sleeper hit;[14] later The New York Times described it as "a breezy mix of satire and realism",[15] and the film won three Filmfare Awards.

In 2010, he directed India's first film shot entirely on Digital Camera, Love Sex aur Dhokha (LSD),which won him critical acclaim. A cutting satire on lapsing social mores fuelled by materialistic greed and technological media advancement, it continued his oeuvre of grappling with the life of anchor-less middle-class & the completely amoral nouveau riche thrown up by India's economic boom of the 1990s. Screened in key festivals around the world it went on to get him international acclaim.

In 2012, he directed Shanghai, a critically acclaimed political thriller involving an assassination, wherein Abhay Deol, who was the lead in his previous film Oye Lucky!, plays one of the three principal characters of the film, a Tamil IAS officer. The film also stars one of Bollywood's most popular stars, Emraan Hashmi. The film is based on the 1967 Greek novel Z written by Vassilis Vassilikos, which was also made into a film by Costa-Gavras.

Shanghai released on 8 June 2012.[16][17]

Personal life

Dibakar Banerjee is married to Richa Puranesh, who has an FMCG marketing background,[8] and the couple lived in Delhi for many years. After the success of Khosla Ka Ghosla, the couple moved to Mumbai and live in Parel, Mumbai with their 3-year-old daughter.

Controversy

1.) Model and actress Payal Rohatgi had accused Dibakar of resorting to 'casting couch' practices, going on to explain how the director barged into her house one day between 9-10pm, seemingly drunk, and asked her to lift her shirt and show him her tummy. Payel asked him to leave immediately, and thereafter the director never replied to any of her calls/messages, while Payal was trying to get in touch with him to know if she was selected for the role (for Dibakar's then upcoming movie) for which she had auditioned earlier. Directors Anurag Kashyap and Sudhir Mishra came out in defence of Dibakar, when Anurag went on record to say- "the actress is mentally unstable and needs help", while Sudhir commented- "Casting couch does not exist in the industry. If someone sleeps with another, it is out of their own choice". Sudhir had later lodged an FIR against the actress, quoting reasons of being threatened by her.


2.) Infamous thief Bunty alias Devinder Singh wanted to kill film director Dibakar Banerjee, whose film Oye Lucky Lucky Oye was based on the notorious thief's deeds.

This came to light when Bunty was being interrogated by the Kerala police after he was nabbed by the Pune police at a lodge in the city on Saturday. They claimed he had visited Kerala to kill Banerjee.

A senior Pune police officer, who was present during the interrogations, said, "When Kerala police interrogated Bunty, he revealed that he wanted to kill Banerjee. However, when he failed to do so, he struck at the house of an NRI businessman."[18] [19]

Filmography

Awards

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The first rush". Calcutta, India: The Telegraph (Kolkata). 14 October 2006.
  2. ↑ Mukherjee, Aparajita (25 January 2010). "Dibakar gets lucky with Oye Lucky....". The Times of India.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Banerjee ready with second film". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 31 October 2008.
  4. ↑ "Imran Khan makes debut in Coke ad". Indiatimes.com Movies. 11 February 2010.
  5. ↑ "Delhi MMS scandal inspires Dibakar's 'Love, Sex Aur Dhoka'". The Indian Express. 29 December 2009.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Out to steal hearts". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 29 November 2008.
  7. ↑ "CUT TO DELHI". The Indian Express. 15 February 2009.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "The Quiet Riot: The middle class loves Dibakar Banerjee’s films..". Tehelka. 20 February 2010.
  9. ↑ Sahu, Shambhu (23 October 2006). "'You have to create a believable reality'". The Times of India.
  10. ↑ Taran Adarsh (22 September 2006). "Movie review: Khosla Ka Ghosla, Rocky". The Indian Express.
  11. ↑ Singh, Madhur (11 October 2007). "Bollywood Changes Its Tune". TIME.
  12. ↑ "The old in the new: By subverting popular idioms, a new wave of filmmakers are redefining Hindi cinema". Screen. 28 August 2009.
  13. ↑ Dasgupta, Priyanka (5 June 2009). "I plan to do a political thriller: Dibakar". The Times of India.
  14. ↑ "Role play". Screen. 3 July 2009.
  15. ↑ Rachel Saltz (4 June 2009). "The Variety of Life, Real and Imagined, in Movie-Mad India". The New York Times.
  16. ↑ "Abhay Deol in Dibakar's political thriller". Screen. 25 December 2009.
  17. ↑ "Abhay to learn Tamil". The Times of India. 24 December 2009.
  18. ↑ http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-bunty-chor-wanted-to-kill-oye-lucky-s-director-dibakar-banerjee-1793310
  19. ↑ "Delhi, from reel to real – The Times of India". The Times of India. 10 December 2010.
  20. ↑ "National Film Awards: Priyanka gets best actress, 'Antaheen' awarded best film". The Times of India. 23 January 2010.
  21. ↑ http://www.mediasarkar.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1949:second-irds-film-awards-for-social-concern&catid=115:entertainment-&Itemid=231

External links