Best Directors in Bollywood
by eiplamrit | created - 11 Oct 2018 | updated - 23 Oct 2018 | PublicDo you want to know who are the top Bollywood Directors of all time. Check out these outstanding, excellent and enthusiast film makers in the history of Bollywood. Check out the master pieces created by these greatest show-makers. Please let me know in case I have forgot any other director in this list. Love and Peace.
1. Satyajit Ray
Writer | Pather Panchali
Satyajit Ray was born in Calcutta on May 2, 1921. His father, Late Sukumar Ray was an eminent poet and writer in the history of Bengali literature. In 1940, after receiving his degree in science and economics from Calcutta University, he attended Tagore's Viswa-Bharati University. His first movie ...
2. Bimal Roy
Director | Bandini
Bimal Roy (July 12, 1909 - January 8, 1966) was an Indian film director. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films such as Do Bigha Zamin (1953), Bandini (1963), Biraj Bahu (1954), Madhumati (1958) which he employed to portray realism. He won a number of awards throughout his...
3. Raj Kapoor
Actor | Mera Naam Joker
Raj Kapoor was the son of well-known Indian actor Prithviraj Kapoor, who acted both in film and on stage. After apprenticing in the Bollywood production studios of the 1940's, at 24 years of age Raj Kapoor produced, directed and acted in Aag (1948), with his new company, RK Films. His next ...
4. Guru Dutt
Actor | Pyaasa
Considered to be a man ahead of his time, Guru Dutt was one of the greatest icons of commercial Indian cinema. Although he made less than ten films, they are believed to be the best to come from Bollywood's Golden Age, known both for their ability to reach out to the common man and for their ...
5. Gulzar
Music_department | Raazi
Gulzar is a writer, a lyricist, a director and, at heart, a poet. His films, sensitive, lyrical, and yet successful, were a welcome relief from the violent films that filled the 1970s and 1980s.
Born Sampooran Singh Kalra in Deena, in the Jhelum District in what is now Pakistan, he came to Delhi ...
6. Govind Nihalani
Cinematographer | Droh Kaal
Govind Nihalani was born on August 19, 1940 in Karachi, Sindh, British India. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Droh Kaal (1994), Aakrosh (1980) and Dev (2004).
7. Shyam Benegal
Director | Ankur
Shyam Benegal was born on December 14, 1934 in Tirumalagiri, Hyderabad State, British India. He is a director and producer, known for Ankur: The Seedling (1974), Bhumika (1977) and Trikal (Past, Present, Future) (1985). He is married to Nira Benegal.
8. Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Director | Anand
By no means is he any glamorous director, yet Hrishikesh Mukherjee is one of the most popular and beloved filmmakers in Indian cinema. His magic lay not in the glamor or largeness so often associated with cinema, but in its simplicity and warmth.
He began his career in Bombay, 1951, as an editor and...
9. Ketan Mehta
Director | Mirch Masala
Ketan Mehta is one of the most internationally acknowledged filmmakers from India. He has a received many National and International awards for his well-known films like 'The Rising - Ballad of Mangal Pandey', 'Mirch Masala', 'Maya Memsaab', 'Sardar', 'Holi' and 'Bhavni Bhavai'. Received Best Film ...
10. Anurag Kashyap
Producer | Gangs of Wasseypur
Anurag Singh Kashyap (born 10 September 1972) is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter. Kashyap made his directorial debut with as yet unreleased Paanch, with Kay Kay Menon as the lead. As a filmmaker, he is known for Black Friday (2004), a controversial and award-winning Hindi film ...
11. Ram Gopal Varma
Director | Rangeela
Ram Gopal Varma was born in Hyderabad, the capital city of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. He initially was a video store owner before eventually becoming one of India's leading film directors. A film buff during his youth, Varma would watch both American and Indian cinema regularly. As a young...
12. Imtiaz Ali
Writer | Jab We Met
Imtiaz Ali is an Indian film director, actor and writer. In 2005, he made his directorial debut with the film Socha Na Tha. However, it was his second film Jab We Met (2007) that brought him success and fame. His 2009 film Love Aaj Kal gained much critical success, and was declared a super hit at ...
13. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Producer | Rang De Basanti
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is a director, writer and producer who established Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Pictures (Romp) in India. Romp has cultivated in them an attitude to pioneer the way for the new wave and new age cinema from India, by identifying talent (writers & directors) from India and telling ...
14. Hansal Mehta
Writer | Shahid
Hansal Mehta is a film director best known for Shahid (2013), Citylights (2014), Aligarh (2016), Omertà (2018) and Scam 1992 (2020). He is known for films that depict social and political realities in deeply polarised and troubled times. His films are remarkable for their understanding of ...
15. Basu Chatterjee
Director | Sara Akash
Basu Chatterjee was born on January 10, 1930 in Ajmer, British India. He was a director and writer, known for Sara Akash (1969), Rajnigandha (1974) and Swami (1977). He died on June 4, 2020 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
16. Shekhar Kapur
Director | Elizabeth
Shekhar Kapur was born on December 6, 1945 in Lahore, Punjab, British India [now Pakistan]. He is a director and actor, known for Elizabeth (1998), Bandit Queen (1994) and The Four Feathers (2002). He was previously married to Suchitra Krishnamoorthi.
17. Subhash Ghai
Writer | Pardes
Ram Lakhan (1989), Khalnayak (1993), Hero (1983), Karz (1980), these are some grand films made by a grandiose director. Since 1976, Subhash has been directing films. But recently where has the fanfare and the fire has gone from Mukta arts main director? Subhash started in 1976 with the film ...
18. Vishal Bhardwaj
Composer | Haider
Vishal Bhardwaj is an Indian film director, writer, composer, singer and producer. He has directed ten feature films, produced five and composed music for more than forty. His directorial work includes Makdee, The Blue Umbrella, Kaminey, 7 Khoon Maaf, Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola, Rangoon, Pataakha as...
19. Ashutosh Gowariker
Writer | Swades: We, the People
His passion for cinema immediately draws your attention, making you realize that Ashutosh Gowariker would not have been anywhere except behind the camera, however tempting the choice. An actor who took to film direction after almost a decade in front of the camera, Ashutosh has acted in Hindi films...
20. Rajkumar Santoshi
Writer | Andaz Apna Apna
Rajkumar Santoshi is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter of Hindi films. Counted as one of the most successful filmmakers in the Hindi film industry, he has received several accolades,including three National Film Awards and six Filmfare Awards.
Santoshi made his directorial debut ...
21. Shoojit Sircar
Director | Piku
Cinema entered the ordinary life of a young, sports and soccer enthusiast Shoojit Sircar, studying in Delhi, India, quite by chance when during the XIIth grade a friend suggested accompanying him for the viewing of a film. Unbeknownst to Sircar, this film would mark for him the beginning of a whole...
22. Kamal Amrohi
Writer | Pakeezah
Kamal Amrohi was born on January 17, 1918 in Amroha, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, British India. He was a writer and director, known for Pakeezah (1972), Mahal (1949) and Daaera (1953). He was married to Meena Kumari. He died on February 11, 1993 in Bombay, Maharashtra, India.
23. K. Asif
Director | Mughal-E-Azam
Asif was born Asif Karim in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh to Parents Dr. Fazal Karim and Bibi Ghulam Fatima. He was the youngest of his siblings with Sikander Begum, wife of versatile Actor/Director/Producer Nazir Ahmed Khan being the Eldest and Masood Karim, the first Muslim President of Sindh Club second...
24. Mohit Suri
Director | Aashiqui 2
Mohit Suri (born 11th of April 1981, India) is a film director, as well as an assistant director and member of the Bhatt family. His uncle is director Mahesh Bhatt and his cousin is actor Emraan Hashmi who has starred in three of his films. His sister Smilie Suri has also appeared in his film ...
25. Farhan Akhtar
Producer | Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
An accomplished and award-winning producer-director-writer-actor-singer, Farhan Akhtar is the ultimate Bollywood multi-hyphenate. Born in 1974 to prolific Indian film writer and poet, Javed Akhtar and writer-director, Honey Irani , Farhan was raised in an environment where creativity and ...
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