Vidhu Vinod Chopra (born 5 September 1952) is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter and editor.[1] He is the recipient of several accolades, including four National Film Awards and eleven Filmfare Awards. He is known for directing films such as the crime drama Parinda (1989), the patriotic romantic drama 1942: A Love Story (1994), the action drama Mission Kashmir (2000) and the biographical drama 12th Fail (2023). He is also known for producing the Munna Bhai film series, 3 Idiots (2009), PK (2014), and Sanju (2018) under his banner Vinod Chopra Films.
Vidhu Vinod Chopra | |
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.jpg) Chopra in 2023 | |
| Born | 5 September 1952 |
| Occupations |
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| Spouses |
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| Children | 3, including Zuni Chopra and Agni Chopra |
| Relatives |
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| Website | vinodchoprafilms |
Early life
editChopra was born and grew up in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India to a Punjabi Hindu family.[2] His father was D. N. Chopra and veteran filmmaker Ramanand Sagar was his half-brother.[3] His parents were originally from Peshawar, British India.[4] His mother was Shanti Devi Mahalakshmi, who left Kashmir, due to the Kashmir conflict in 1990. He dedicated his film Shikara to his mother, which was based on the same.[5] He studied film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune.
Career
editChopra's first student short film, Murder at Monkey Hill (1976), won the National Film Award for Best Short Experimental Film and the Guru Dutt Memorial Award for Best Student Film.[6]
This was followed by a short documentary highlighting the plight of India's destitute children, called An Encounter with Faces (1976), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film in 1979. It also won the Grand Prix at the Tampere Film Festival in 1980.[7]
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.
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.
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 set in Kashmir, Khamosh remains one of the notable Indian films in the genre.
His next directorial, the crime drama Parinda (1989), proved to be a landmark film in Hindi cinema. It expanded the orbit of the crime drama and the vocabulary of images used in Hindi 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 (1994), was a patriotic romantic drama set during the decline of the British Raj. With Anil Kapoor and Manisha Koirala in lead 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 and the film won a total of nine awards at the 40th Filmfare Awards. His following two films, Kareeb and Mission Kashmir, were also critically and commercially successful.
Chopra then produced 5 films with filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani for 5 films: Munna Bhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, 3 Idiots, PK, and Sanju. The first 3, which Chopra also co wrote, each won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment, and Lage Raho Munna Bhai also won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay. They were all also very commercially successful, with 3 Idiots and PK becoming the highest grossing Indian films of all time in India and worldwide, also breaking into East Asian markets.[8] He also wrote and produced Parineeta, Ferrari Ki Sawaari, and Wazir.
However, Chopra's next directorials after 2000 were not as successful. His 2007 film Eklavya: The Royal Guard was a financial disappointment. He also made his Hollywood directorial debut in 2015 with the film Broken Horses, a remake of his own film Parinda. However, it received a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 22%,[9] and was a commercial disaster, only making Rs. 60 lakh in its opening weekend.[10] His 2020 release Shikara was a romantic drama about the Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus. It became his lowest grossing film since Khamosh.
Chopra then saw a return to success with his 2023 release, the biopic 12th Fail. Despite a low opening day box office, due to great reviews and word of mouth, it became a financial hit, grossing 70 crores on a 20 crore budget.[11] It then won 5 Filmfare Awards, including Best Film, Director, Screenplay, and Editing for Chopra.
Filmography
edit| Year | Film | Credit as | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Writer | Producer | |||
| 1976 | Murder at Monkey Hill | Yes | Yes | No | Diploma film; also Actor |
| 1978 | An Encounter with Faces | Yes | No | No | Documentary film, nominated for the Oscars. |
| 1981 | Sazaye Maut | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1983 | Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro | No | No | Production Controller | also Actor |
| 1985 | Khamosh | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1989 | Parinda | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1994 | 1942: A Love Story | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1998 | Kareeb | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2000 | Mission Kashmir | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2003 | Munna Bhai MBBS | No | Yes | Yes | |
| 2005 | Parineeta | No | Yes | Yes | Supervising Editor |
| 2006 | Lage Raho Munna Bhai | No | Yes | Yes | Associate writer; lyricist |
| 2007 | Eklavya: The Royal Guard | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2009 | 3 Idiots | No | Yes | Yes | Screenplay Associate |
| 2012 | Ferrari Ki Sawaari | No | Yes | Yes | |
| 2014 | PK | No | No | Yes | |
| 2015 | Broken Horses | Yes | Yes | Yes | English Film |
| 2016 | Wazir | No | Yes | Yes | also Editor |
| 2018 | Sanju | No | No | Yes | |
| 2019 | Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga | No | No | Yes | |
| 2020 | Shikara | Yes | Yes | Yes | co-writers: Rahul Pandita and Abhijat Joshi |
| 2023 | 12th Fail | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Also Editor; Singer, "Restart" and "Restart" (Rap 'N' Folk) |
Television
edit| Title | Year | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi (DD National) | 1984 | Himself | Episode 32: "Dieting" |
Bibliography
edit| Year | Name | Co Writer(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Unscripted: Conversation on life and cinema | Abhijat Joshi | [12] |
Awards and nominations
edit| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | |||||
| National Film Awards | |||||
| 2003 | Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment | Munna Bhai MBBS | Won | ||
| 2006 | Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment | Lage Raho Munna Bhai | Won | ||
| National Film Award for Best Screenplay | Won | ||||
| 2009 | Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment | 3 Idiots | Won | ||
| Filmfare Awards | |||||
| 1990 | Best Film | Parinda | Nominated | ||
| Best Director | Won | ||||
| 1995 | Best Film | 1942: A Love Story | Nominated | ||
| Best Director | Nominated | ||||
| 2001 | Best Film | Mission Kashmir | Nominated | ||
| Best Director | Nominated | ||||
| 2004 | Best Film | Munna Bhai MBBS | Nominated | ||
| Best Screenplay | Won | ||||
| 2007 | Best Film | Lage Raho Munna Bhai | Nominated | ||
| Best Story | Won | ||||
| Best Diaolgue | Won | ||||
| 2010 | Best Film | 3 Idiots | Won | ||
| Best Screenplay | Won | ||||
| 2014 | Best Film | PK | Nominated | ||
| 2019 | Best Film | Sanju | Nominated | ||
| 2024 | Best Film | 12th Fail | Won | ||
| Best Director | Won | ||||
| Best Film (Critics) | Nominated | ||||
| Best Screenplay | Won | ||||
| Best Diaolgue | Nominated | ||||
| Best Editing | Won | ||||
- 2007: Winner, Best Screenplay for Lage Raho Munna Bhai
- 2001: Nominated, IIFA Award for Best Director for Mission Kashmir
- 2010: Winner, Best Screenplay for 3 Idiots
- 2009: Winner, Readers' Choice Award for 3 Idiots
- 2009: Winner, Most Successful Film of the Year for 3 Idiots
- 2006: Winner, Best Film for Lage Raho Munnabhai
- 2006: Nominated, Best Screenplay for Lage Raho Munna Bhai
- 2009: Winner, Best Film, 3 Idiots
- 2009: Winner, Best Screenplay, 3 Idiots
- 2007: Winner, Best Screenplay for Lage Raho Munna Bhai
- 2005: Winner, Best Dialogue for Parineeta
- 2005: Winner, Best Director for Mission Kashmir
- 1980: Winner, Grand Prix for An Encounter with Faces
Personal life
editHe has been married thrice, his first wife was noted editor 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. He has a daughter with Shabnam, Ishaa Chopra, who works as a dance instructor and choreographer.[13][14]
He is currently married to Indian film critic Anupama Chopra, whom he married on 1 June 1990.[15] He has two children with her, a son, Agni and a daughter, Zuni Chopra.[16]
References
edit- ^ "Vidhu Vinod Chopra". IMDb. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
- ^ "Vidhu Vinod Chopra recalls troubled time in Kashmir – NDTV Movies". ndtv.com. 6 February 2013. Archived from the original on 24 July 2015. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
- ^ "In Bollywood, everyone's related!". The Times of India. 14 June 2009. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
- ^ "Vidhu Vinod Chopra: I was arrogant, volatile and violent, living with Anu has changed me". The Times of India. 9 April 2015. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
- ^ "Vidhu Vinod Chopra on Shikara: It is about those who have been refugees in India for over three decades". India Today. 7 January 2020 – via Indo-Asian News Service.
- ^ "Murder at Monkey Hill". Rudraa. Archived from the original on 3 October 2009. Retrieved 8 October 2009.
- ^ "Tampere International Short Film Festival (1980)". IMDb. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
- ^ "3 Idiots – Lifetime Box Office Collection, Budget, Reviews, Cast, etc". BOTY. 4 July 2018. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
- ^ "Broken Horses". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
- ^ "Broken Horses Is An Epic Disaster – Box Office India". boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
- ^ "12th Fail Box Office Collection". Bollywood Hungama. 27 October 2023. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
- ^ "Vidhu Vinod Chopra's New Book 'Unscripted' 2021". Times Of India. 12 January 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
- ^ Vidhu Vinod Chopra wives. bollywoodshaadis.com.
- ^ Watch: A documentary revisits S. Sukhdev's life and career. Scroll.in.
- ^ "Sleeping with the Enemy". OPEN Magazine. 6 May 2010. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
- ^ "Zuni Chopra, the quirky millennial author, at her candid best". in.com. Archived from the original on 19 October 2018. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
External links
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