Madhur Bhandarkar

This article is an autobiography, or has been extensively edited by the subject or an institution related to the subject. Please help edit it to conform to Wikipedia's neutral point of view, in line with the discussion on the talk page. (December 2011)

Madhur Bhandarkar (मधुर भांडारकर)
Madhur Bhandarkar at Kangana Ranaut 24th Birthday Bash
Born	(1968-08-26) August 26, 1968 (age 43) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Occupation	Film Director, screenwriter, producer
Years active	1995 - present
Spouse	Renu Bhandarkar

Madhur Bhandarkar (Marathi: मधुर भांडारकर) (born August 26, 1968) is a National Award-winning Indian film director, script writer, and producer. He is best known for his films such as Chandni Bar (2001), Page 3 (2005), Traffic Signal (2007), and Fashion (2008). He won the National Award for Best Director for Traffic Signal.

Biography

Career

Madhur Bhandarkar worked in a video cassette library in Khar, a suburb of Mumbai. This gave him access to a large collection of movies and he studied film-making through it.

After trying his skills at production and various other stints including as assistant to film director Ashok Gaikwad, Bhandarkar landed up as an assistant to Ram Gopal Varma. He even played a small role in his 1995 film Rangeela. In the same year he made a pilot episode of a TV serial 'Apne Rang Hazaar' but did not find success. A couple of years later he made his directorial debut with Trishakti which took more than two years to make and released in 1999. The film had a relatively low key cast and was largely ignored at the box office. After two years he directed Chandni Bar (2001) starring Tabu and Atul Kulkarni. The film was a critically acclaimed success, which took Bhandarkar into the top league of filmmakers in Bollywood. He received his first National Award for this film and there on won National awards for his films Page-3 and Traffic Signal. Three National Awards winning director Madhur Bhandarkar has recently added one more feather to his cap. Madhur was conferred PL Deshpande Award a.k.a. Zenith Asia Award for significantly shaping the film making culture in his unique works and he has been described as The Film Maker of The First Decade of 21st Century. On the Silver Jubilee Year of Aashay Film Club, this award ceremony took place on 16th Nov at National Film Archive Theatre during 8th ‘Pulotsav – An Art Festival’ in Pune. PL Deshpande was a renowned writer, stage and film actor and his literary works are still revered in Maharashtra and others parts of the world. In his honour, Zenith Asia Award was given to Madhur Bhandarkar and his film Chandni Bar was also screened during the fest amongst landmarked 25 films from the world cinema.

Also recently, National Film Archive of India (NFAI) which falls under Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India preserved all the films of renowned Indian Film-Maker Madhur Bhandarkar. Chandani Bar, Page-3, Corporate, Traffic Signal, Fashion and Jail, are all the films of the realistic film-maker which will now find space in Government’s Archival data for Indian Films.

The nature of job of National Film Archive of India is to safeguard the heritage of Indian Cinema for posterity and act as a centre for dissemination of a healthy film culture in the country. Promotion of film scholarship and research on various aspects of cinema also form part of its Charter. Familiarizing foreign audiences with Indian Cinema and to make it more visible across the globe is another declared objective of the Archive.

Personal life

Bhandarkar is a school dropout. His father was an electric contractor. When he was about twelve years old, his father's business suffered heavy losses. As a result, Madhur had to take up jobs. He worked at a video store as an errand boy and dropped off cassettes to people from many walks of life including dance bar girls and film stars. He also sold chewing gum at traffic signals and worked as an assistant to small time directors for a paltry salary of Rs. 1000. He also travelled to Dubai where his only sibling, elder sister was based in search of work. At time of his struggle, he travelled by bus and sometimes those who had done bit roles in his films would give him seat only to embarrass him. (Times of India- 27 September 2009 as told to Sudeshna Chatterjee by Bhadarkar himself) He is a great devotee of the Hindu God Siddhivinayak and would walk barefoot from his residence in Khar to Prabhadevi on Tuesdays when in town. According to him, the film Corporate was his most difficult film as people in corporate world would shun him after he bared page 3 culture in his earlier film. He took inspiration for Corporate from the Coke - Pepsi controversy. He has been invited to deliver lectures on corporate issues to management students after the release of Corporate. (Interview to TV channel IBN Lokmat on 26 November 2008) Bhandarkar married his girlfriend Renu Namboodiri-Bhandarkar on 15 December 2003 in Mumbai. They have a daughter named Siddhi. Madhur is the life member of International Film and Television Research Centre of Asian Academy of Film & Television, Noida.

Directorial style

In most of his films, Bhandarkar's protagonist is female. (Tabu in Chandni Bar, Raveena Tandon in Satta, Konkona Sen Sharma in Page 3, Bipasha Basu in Corporate, Priyanka Chopra in Fashion and Kareena Kapoor in the upcoming Heroine.) He has also depicted gay characters in his movies like Page 3, Traffic signal and Fashion.

In an interview with Sanjay Ram of Businessofcinema.com he said "My movies are not exposes, maybe they just hold up a mirror to society. My movies are not judgmental; I just show what happens in our society, sometimes there could be a solution and sometimes there may be none. Life goes on."

Controversy

In July 2004, he was accused of rape and criminal intimidation by small time actress Preeti Jain. Jain stated that she had intercourse with Bhandarkar between 2000 and 2003 under the false pretenses of marriage and a lead role in a movie.^[1] Madhur has also been charged for threatening the aspiring model.

In September 2005, Jain was arrested and charged with conspiracy to murder. Police alleged that she paid gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli's one time aide Naresh Pardesi Rs. 75,000 to have Bhandarkar killed.^[2] She was later released on bail.^[3]

In 2009, Jain moved the Andheri court with her complaint after which the police submitted a report stating that there is no evidence of rape against the director. The trial was stayed, after which Preeti moved a local court in Mumbai.

Filmography

References

1. ^ "Madhur Bhandarkar faces trial for rape". Times Of India. 20 September 2011. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-20/news-interviews/30179247_1_b-summary-report-legal-notice-jain. Retrieved 27 September 2011. 
2. ^ "Bhandarkar case: Starlet Preeti Jain gets bail". Rediff.com. http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/oct/04preeti.htm. 
3. ^ "Preeti Jain gets bail after three weeks of custody". outlookindia.com. http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?326861. Retrieved 27 September 2011. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Madhur Bhandarkar

• Madhur Bhandarkar at the Internet Movie Database