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Vidhu Vinod Chopra

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Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Chopra in 2023
Born (1952-09-05) 5 September 1952 (age 72)
Occupations
  • Film director
  • film producer
  • screenwriter
  • editor
Spouses
  • (m. 1976; div. 1983)
  • Shabnam Sukhdev
    (m. 1985; div. 1989)
  • (m. 1990)
Children3, including Zuni Chopra and Agni Chopra
RelativesRamanand Sagar (half-brother)
Websitevinodchoprafilms.com

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.

Early life

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Chopra 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

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Chopra'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

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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

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Title Year Role Notes
Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi (DD National) 1984 Himself Episode 32: "Dieting"

Bibliography

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Year Name Co Writer(s) Notes
2021 Unscripted: Conversation on life and cinema Abhijat Joshi [12]

Awards and nominations

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List of Vidhu Vinod Chopra awards and nominations
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
  • 2009: Winner, Readers' Choice Award for 3 Idiots
  • 2009: Winner, Most Successful Film of the Year for 3 Idiots

Personal life

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He 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

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  1. ^ "Vidhu Vinod Chopra". IMDb. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  2. ^ "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.
  3. ^ "In Bollywood, everyone's related!". The Times of India. 14 June 2009. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  4. ^ "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.
  5. ^ "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.
  6. ^ "Murder at Monkey Hill". Rudraa. Archived from the original on 3 October 2009. Retrieved 8 October 2009.
  7. ^ "Tampere International Short Film Festival (1980)". IMDb. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  8. ^ "3 Idiots – Lifetime Box Office Collection, Budget, Reviews, Cast, etc". BOTY. 4 July 2018. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  9. ^ "Broken Horses". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  10. ^ "Broken Horses Is An Epic Disaster – Box Office India". boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  11. ^ "12th Fail Box Office Collection". Bollywood Hungama. 27 October 2023. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
  12. ^ "Vidhu Vinod Chopra's New Book 'Unscripted' 2021". Times Of India. 12 January 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  13. ^ Vidhu Vinod Chopra wives. bollywoodshaadis.com.
  14. ^ Watch: A documentary revisits S. Sukhdev's life and career. Scroll.in.
  15. ^ "Sleeping with the Enemy". OPEN Magazine. 6 May 2010. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  16. ^ "Zuni Chopra, the quirky millennial author, at her candid best". in.com. Archived from the original on 19 October 2018. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
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