Dibakar Banerjee

Dibakar Banerjee (born 21 June 1969) 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.[1] He also runs his own film production company, Dibakar Banerjee Productions.[2]

Not to be confused with Indian Army officer, Dipankar Banerjee or Indian metallurgist, Dipankar Banerjee.

Dibakar Banerjee
Banerjee at the screening of Gangs of Wasseypur in 2012
Born (1969-06-21) 21 June 1969
New Delhi, India
NationalityIndian
Alma materNational Institute of Design
Occupationfilm director, screenwriter, advertisement-filmmaker
Years active2006–present

As a film maker, he is known for Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006), Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008), both of which won National Film Awards.[3][4] His next film was the experimental Love Sex Aur Dhokha (2010). It was followed by the political drama Shanghai (2012) and Bombay Talkies (2013), which was made as a celebration of the centenary year of Indian cinema. In 2015, he directed Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, a film based on the fictional character Byomkesh Bakshi.

Personal life

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.[5][6][7] After finishing his schooling, he joined the National Institute of Design, at 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.[7][8]

He is married to Richa Puranesh, who has an FMCG marketing background, and the couple lived in Delhi for many years. After the success of Khosla Ka Ghosla, they moved to Mumbai and live in Parel, Mumbai with their two daughters.[7]

Career

Banerjee 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.[9] In 1997, he left Contract to launch his own company named 'Watermark', with two ex- NID friends, to develop promos for Channel V and MTV and Ad films for major brands.

With friend and ex-colleague Jaideep Sahni 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 was a critical and commercial success and won the National Film Award.[3][10] The film brought Banerjee 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]

Banerjee then co-wrote and directed his second feature, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008), which was also set in his hometown Delhi. The film starring Abhay Deol, Neetu Chandra and Paresh Rawal, premiered at the International Film Festival of India, Goa, along with Museum of Modern Art, New York.[5][13] It was released in the 2008 Mumbai attacks weekend to positive reviews and went on to become a sleeper hit.[14][15] Rachel Saltz of The New York Times described the film as "a breezy mix of satire and realism".[16] Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film.[17]

In 2010, Banerjee directed India's first film shot entirely on Digital Camera, and to be presented in the found footage style, Love Sex Aur Dhokha. The film was shown through Handycams, CCTV cameras and mobile cameras.[18] Dealing with Issues like honour killings, MMS scandals, and sting operations,[19] the film was released on 19 March 2010 to positive reception and strong box office results.[20] Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN rated it 4 out of 5, stating " Dibakar Banerjee's Love, Sex aur Dhoka is the most riveting Hindi film in recent memory. [...] You will be shocked, you will be startled, but walking out of the theatre, you know you have just seen what is possibly the most important Hindi film since Satya and Dil Chahta Hai. Not only does it redefine the concept of "realistic cinema", it opens a world of possibilities in terms of how you can shoot films now."[21]

Banerjee's next directorial venture was Shanghai (2012), a political drama involving an assassination of a social activist. Starring Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin and Emraan Hashmi, the film was based on the 1967 Greek novel Z written by Vassilis Vassilikos. Shanghai premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and released on 8 June 2012.[22][23]

In 2013, Banerjee adapted Satyajit Ray's short story- Patol Babu, Film Star, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui for Bombay Talkies. It was the part of the anthology film made by four directors Including -Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar. The film was made as a celebration of 100 years of Indian cinema.[24][25] Bombay Talkies under-performed at the box office,[26] but was well received by critics; specially Banerjee's story. Anupama Chopra in her review mentioned: "Dibakar narrates his story with such tenderness and Siddiqui is so good that by the end, I was wiping away tears".[27]

Next Banerjee went on to adapt Byomkesh Bakshi, created by the Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, as Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (2015).[28] The film starring Sushant Singh Rajput as the titular character was produced jointly by Yash Raj Films and his own film production company Dibakar Banerjee Productions. Set in the Kolkata of 1940s,[29] the film was released on 3 April 2015 and met with mixed to positive reviews from critics.[30][31]

Banerjee co-produced Love Sex Aur Dhokha's co-writer Kanu Behl first film as a director, Titli, with Yash Raj Films. The film was selected to take part in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.[32][33] It was released in India on 30 October 2015, to positive reviews.[34] The same month he returned the National Award for Khosla ka Ghosla along with 12 other filmmakers, in protest against the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting refusing to roll back FTII's appointment of Gajendra Chauhan.[35]

In 2018, Banerjee again collaborated with Kashyap, Akhtar and Johar for the anthology film Lust Stories. Based on the theme of lust, it had stories told through female perspective.[36] Banerjee's story had Manisha Koirala and Sanjay Kapoor. The film was released on Netflix on 15 June 2018.[37]

Controversies

Infamous thief Bunty alias Devinder Singh wanted to kill Dibakar Banerjee, whose film Oye Lucky Lucky Oye was based on his deeds. When Bunty was interrogated by the Kerala Police after he was nabbed by the Pune Police at a lodge he claimed that he had visited Kerala to kill Banerjee. A senior Pune police officer, who was present during the interrogations noted that "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."[38]

Filmography
Year Film Director Producer Screenwriter
2006Khosla Ka GhoslaYes
2008Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!YesYes
2010Love Sex Aur DhokhaYesYesYes
2012ShanghaiYesYesYes
2013Bombay TalkiesYesYes
2015Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!YesYesYes
2015TitliYes
2018Lust StoriesYesYes
2020Ghost StoriesYesYes
2020Sandeep Aur Pinky FaraarYesYesYes
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References
  1. "Imran Khan makes debut in Coke ad". Mid Day. 11 February 2010. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  2. Jai Arjun Singh (1 January 2013). "Jump Cut". The Caravan. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  3. "The first rush". The Telegraph (Kolkata). Calcutta, India. 14 October 2006.
  4. Mukherjee, Aparajita (25 January 2010). "Dibakar gets lucky with Oye Lucky..." The Times of India.
  5. "Out to steal hearts". The Hindu. 29 November 2008.
  6. Dutta, Amrita (15 February 2009). "Cut To Delhi". The Indian Express.
  7. Gupta, Trisha (20 February 2010). "The quiet riot". Tehelka. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  8. Sahu, Shambhu (23 October 2006). "'You have to create a believable reality'". The Times of India.
  9. "Dibakar Banerjee Biography". Koimoi. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  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. Raja Sen. "Go watch 2008's finest and unluckiest film". Rediff.com.
  15. Vijayakar, Rajiv (25 June 2015). "Expectations Vs results: How top directors fared in 2015". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  16. Saltz, Rachel (4 June 2009). "The Variety of Life, Real and Imagined, in Movie-Mad India". The New York Times.
  17. "National Film Awards: Priyanka gets best actress, 'Antaheen' awarded best film". The Times of India. 23 January 2010.
  18. "'Love Sex Aur Dhokha will leave you shocked'". Rediff.com. 11 March 2010. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  19. "Love Sex aur Dhokha director unplugged!". Hindustan Times. 18 March 2010. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  20. "Love Sex aur Dhokha". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  21. "Masand's Verdict: LSD provocative and disturbing". CNN-IBN. 19 March 2010.
  22. Vlessing, Etan (15 September 2012). "Toronto 2012: Bollywood's Dibakar Banerjee on Shooting the Action Thriller 'Shanghai' in a Haze". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  23. Sharma, Suparna (9 June 2012). "Dibakar's Bharat ki khoj". The Asian Age. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  24. "Bollywood directors join hands to pay homage to Indian cinema". The Times of India. 7 May 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  25. Dubey, Bharati (25 January 2012). "Film industry to mark Phalke centenary". The Times of India. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  26. "Bombay Talkies Box office report". Box Office India. Archived from the original on 17 March 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  27. Chopra, Anupama (4 May 2013). "Anupama Chopra's review: Bombay Talkies". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 4 May 2013. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
  28. "'Byomkesh Bakshi' gets a new spelling in Bollywood". Daily News & Analysis. 21 December 2014. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
  29. "BBD Bag back to 1943 for Byomkesh shoot". The Times of India. 10 April 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  30. Deepanjana Pal (6 April 2015). "Detective Byomkesh Bakshy review: Stylish, beautiful and yet Dibakar's most underwhelming film so far". Firstpost. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  31. Shubha Shetty Saha (3 April 2015). "'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!' – Movie Review". Mid Day. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  32. "After 'Titli', 'True Love Story' at Cannes film fest". Mint. 22 April 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  33. "2014 Official Selection". Festival De Cannes. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  34. Mehta, Ankita (29 October 2015). "'Titli' review roundup: This is what critics have to say about Ranvir Shorey's film". International Business Times. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  35. Ansari, Humaira (29 October 2015). "12 filmmakers return national awards, protest 'growing intolerance'". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  36. Rawat, Kshitij (18 May 2018). "Lust Stories trailer: Netflix original film promises tales of love and desire from the female perspective". The Indian Express. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  37. Ramakrishnan, Swetha (15 June 2018). "Lust Stories movie review: Netflix anthology is another step forward in Bollywood's sexual awakening". Firstpost. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  38. "Bunty Chor wanted to kill 'Oye Lucky...s director Dibakar Banerjee". Daily News and Analysis. 28 January 2013. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
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