Leaders

Entertainment has always been a part of Indian Culture. The arrival of cinema in India made it even handy for the people to use their free-time. From the beginning, the Indian film industry always presented greatest of film-makers. However, this male-dominated fields were soon taken over by females who created masterpieces in Cinema. From Fatma Begum who’s known to be the first female film director of Indian cinema, to today’s generation female producers, the industry has gone to whole new level.

With the contributions of female producers in the film industry, the audience is able to see some films from the eyes of women. They not only create diverse perspectives but form bold characters that would influence the women to take the center stage and not being fragile.

To bring forth the boldness of women infront of the society and convey the hidden struggles and braveries of women, one female filmmaker who took the challenge is Meghna Gulzar. 

Meghna's Journey in Film Industry

Born on 1973 in Mumbai, Meghan Gulzar is the daughter of legendary lyricist and poet Gulzar and actress Raakhee. Pursuing her interest in writing, she began her career as a freelance writer at The Times of India and the NFDC publication Cinema in India. Being the daughter of Gulzar, she inherited poetic skills that got published anthologies of the Poetry Society of India. Considering her academical background, Meghna is a qualified filmmaker from the Tisch School of Arts, New York University, New York.

In order to build strong understanding of filmmaking, she first joined her father in two of his films Maachis and Hu Tu Tu, as an assistant. Simultaneously, Meghna started scripting for her film alongside directing documentaries for music videos of several music albums as well as Doordarshan.

Entry as a Director!

In the year 2002, Meghna made her debut as a director for her Film Filhaal where she starred Sushmita Sen and Tabu. Taking couples of years of break, she ventured into her 2nd directed film ‘Just Married’ in 2007 while also directing for a short film Pooranmasi for the anthology of Sanjay Gupta Dus Kahaniyaan.

Now in the last few years, she produced some of the greatest films like drama thriller Talvar in 2015 and spy thriller Raazi in 2018. These films quivered the entire industry with their storyline and plot. Without being done, she again came with a biopic of acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal ‘Chhapaak’ in 2020 which not only expressed her pain but also presented how tragic the life of Laxmi has been throughout.

Meghna’s Hall of Fame with Achievements

After creating such good films and biopics, she finally won the Filmfare Award for Best Director for her Film Raazi, also getting nominated for Filmfare Award for Best Film (Critics) and Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay in 2018. She was also nominated for Filmfare Award for Best Director in 2015 for ‘Talvar’. Meghna’s portrayal of women in her films is incredible and also motivated women to become strong without fearing anyone.