Filmfare Award for Best Director
The Filmfare Best Director Award is one of the main awards presented given by the annual Filmfare Awards to recognise directors working in Hindi cinema. It was first presented in 1954 in the inaugural year.
Filmfare Award for Best Director | |
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Awarded for | Best Director |
Country | India |
Presented by | Filmfare |
First awarded | Bimal Roy, Do Bigha Zamin (1954) |
Currently held by | Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Gangubai Kathiawadi (2023) |
Website | Filmfare Awards |
Superlatives
Category | Name | Superlative | Year(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Most Awards | Bimal Roy | 7 awards | 1954–1964 | Awards resulted from 7 nominations |
Most Nominations | Yash Chopra | 12 nominations | 1966–2005 | Nominations resulted in 4 awards |
Most Nominations without a Win | Mahesh Bhatt | 6 nominations | 1984–1994 | – |
Bimal Roy has the record of winning most awards (7) and the distinction of winning the award thrice in a row, on 2 separate occasions (1954–1956 and 1959–1961). He also won the award whenever he was nominated (7/7). Sanjay Leela Bhansali has received the award 5 times, Yash Chopra and Raj Kapoor has received the award 4 times each.
Yash Chopra received 12 nominations, Sanjay Leela Bhansali has received 8 nominations, while Raj Kapoor has received 6 nominations. Mahesh Bhatt was nominated thrice in a row (1984–1986). However, he hasn't received any award even after having been nominated 6 times. Also, no director has ever won if one has been nominated twice in the same year – Gulzar in 1974 (for Achanak and Koshish), Basu Chatterjee in 1977 (for Chhoti Si Baat and Chitchor) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee in 1980 (for Gol Maal and Jurmana).
Sai Paranjpye was the first of 4 women to have won this award, the second being Zoya Akhtar, the third being Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, and the fourth being Meghna Gulzar. Sai Paranjpye won it for Sparsh in 1985. Paranjpye had earlier been nominated for Chashme Buddoor in 1982. Zoya Akhtar won it for Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara in 2012. Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari won it for Bareilly Ki Barfi in 2018 and Meghna Gulzar won it in for Raazi in 2019, after previously being nominated in 2016 for Talvar. Akhtar won the award again for Gully Boy in 2020, thus becoming the only woman to win the award twice. Other women directors to have been nominated are Mira Nair for Salaam Bombay! in 1990, Farah Khan for Main Hoon Na in 2005 and for Om Shanti Om in 2008, Gauri Shinde for English Vinglish in 2013 and Seema Pahwa for Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi in 2022.
Rajkumar Santoshi remains the only director to have won the award for his first two films – for Ghayal in 1991 and for Damini in 1994.
Nitesh Tiwari and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari are the only married couple to win the award. Additionally, they won the award in consecutive years – Nitesh Tiwari won the award for Dangal in 2017 and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari won the award for Bareilly Ki Barfi in 2018.
Only once have two siblings been nominated in the same year; Zoya Akhtar for Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Farhan Akhtar for Don 2 in 2012, with Zoya winning the category.
Multiple nominations
The following Directors have received multiple Best Director nominations. The list is sorted by the number of total awards (with the number of total nominations listed in parentheses).
- 7 : Bimal Roy (7)
- 5 : Sanjay Leela Bhansali (8)
- 4 : Yash Chopra (12)
- 4 : Raj Kapoor (6)
- 2 : Rakesh Roshan (5)
- 2 : Rajkumar Santoshi (5)
- 2 : Karan Johar (5)
- 2 : Ashutosh Gowariker (3)
- 2 : Manoj Kumar (3)
- 2 : Zoya Akhtar (2)
- 2 : Govind Nihalani (2)
- 2 : Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (2)
- 1 : Subhash Ghai (6)
- 1 : Gulzar (6)
- 1 : B. R. Chopra (5)
- 1 : Rajkumar Hirani (5)
- 1 : Mansoor Khan (4)
- 1 : Shyam Benegal (3)
- 1 : Basu Chatterjee (3)
- 1 : Aditya Chopra (3)
- 1 : Vidhu Vinod Chopra (3)
- 1 : Sohanlal Kanwar (3)
- 1 : Sooraj Barjatya (3)
- 1 : Mukul S. Anand (2)
- 1 : J. P. Dutta (2)
- 1 : Shekhar Kapur (2)
- 1 : Mehboob Khan (2)
- 1 : Sai Paranjpye (2)
- 1 : Ramanand Sagar (2)
- 1 : Asit Sen (2)
- 1 : V. Shantaram (2)
- 1 : Meghna Gulzar (2)
- 1 : Nitesh Tiwari (2)
- 1 : Kunal Kohli (1)
- 1 : Sujoy Ghosh (1)
- 1 : Aamir Khan (1)
- 1 : Vikas Bahl (1)
- 1 : Om Raut (1)
- 1 : Vijay Anand (1)
- 1 : Abrar Alvi (1)
- 1 : Satyajit Ray (1)
- 1 : Muzaffar Ali (1)
- 0 : Mahesh Bhatt (6)
- 0 : Hrishikesh Mukherjee (5)
- 0 : Ram Gopal Varma (5)
- 0 : Shoojit Sircar (4)
- 0 : Ramesh Sippy (3)
- 0 : Imtiaz Ali (3)
- 0 : Anurag Kashyap (3)
- 0 : Anurag Basu (3)
- 0 : Vishal Bhardwaj (3)
- 0 : Ayan Mukerji (3)
- 0 : Farhan Akhtar (3)
- 0 : Shakti Samanta (3)
- 0 : Prakash Mehra (2)
- 0 : Indra Kumar (2)
- 0 : Rajiv Rai (2)
- 0 : Dharmesh Darshan (2)
- 0 : Abbas–Mustan (2)
- 0 : Abhishek Kapoor (2)
- 0 : Aanand L. Rai (2)
- 0 : Farah Khan (2)
- 0 : Kabir Khan (2)
- 0 : Madhur Bhandarkar (2)
- 0 : Sriram Raghavan (2)
- 0 : L. V. Prasad (2)
- 0 : Raj Khosla (2)
- 0 : David Dhawan (2)
- 0 : Vikram Bhatt (2)
- 0 : Rahul Rawail (2)
Winner and nominees
In the list below, the winner of the award for each year is shown first, followed by the other nominees. The films are listed by the years when the award was presented. The announcing of nominations became regular after 1959.
1950s
- 1954 Bimal Roy – Do Bigha Zamin
- 1955 Bimal Roy – Parineeta
- 1956 Bimal Roy – Biraj Bahu
- 1957 V. Shantaram – Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje
- 1958 Mehboob Khan – Mother India
- 1959 Bimal Roy – Madhumati
- B. R. Chopra – Sadhna
- Mahesh Kaul – Talaaq
1960s
- 1960 Bimal Roy – Sujata
- 1961 Bimal Roy – Parakh
- 1962 B. R. Chopra – Kanoon
- 1963 Abrar Alvi – Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam
- 1964 Bimal Roy – Bandini
- 1965 Raj Kapoor – Sangam
- 1966 Yash Chopra – Waqt
- 1967 Vijay Anand – Guide
- 1968 Manoj Kumar – Upkar
- 1969 Ramanand Sagar – Ankhen
- Bhappi Soni – Brahmachari
- Ram Maheshwari – Neel Kamal
1970s
- 1970 Yash Chopra – Ittefaq
- 1971 Asit Sen – Safar
- Raj Khosla – Do Raaste
- Sohanlal Kanwar – Pehchan
- 1972 Raj Kapoor – Mera Naam Joker
- 1973 Sohanlal Kanwar – Be-Imaan
- 1974 Yash Chopra – Daag
- Gulzar – Achanak
- Gulzar – Koshish
- Raj Kapoor – Bobby
- Rajendra Bhatia – Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar
- 1975 Manoj Kumar – Roti Kapda Aur Makaan
- 1976 Yash Chopra – Deewaar
- Gulzar – Aandhi
- Ramesh Sippy – Sholay
- Shakti Samanta – Amanush
- Sohanlal Kanwar – Sanyasi
- 1977 Gulzar – Mausam
- Basu Chatterjee – Chhoti Si Baat
- Basu Chatterjee – Chitchor
- Rajkumar Kohli – Nagin
- Yash Chopra – Kabhi Kabhie
- 1978 Basu Chatterjee – Swami
- 1979 Satyajit Ray – Shatranj Ke Khilari
1980s
- 1980 Shyam Benegal – Junoon
- Hrishikesh Mukherjee – Gol Maal
- Hrishikesh Mukherjee – Jurmana
- Manmohan Krishna – Noorie
- Yash Chopra – Kaala Patthar
- 1981 Govind Nihalani – Aakrosh
- 1982 Muzaffar Ali – Umrao Jaan
- K. Balachander – Ek Duuje Ke Liye
- Rabindra Dharamraj – Chakra
- Ramesh Talwar – Baseraa
- Sai Paranjpye – Chashme Buddoor
- Shyam Benegal – Kalyug
- 1983 Raj Kapoor – Prem Rog
- 1984 Govind Nihalani – Ardh Satya
- 1985 Sai Paranjpye – Sparsh
- 1986 Raj Kapoor – Ram Teri Ganga Maili
- 1987 No Award
- 1988 No Award
- 1989 Mansoor Khan – Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak
1990s
- 1990 Vidhu Vinod Chopra – Parinda
- 1991 Rajkumar Santoshi – Ghayal
- 1992 Subhash Ghai – Saudagar
- 1993 Mukul S. Anand – Khuda Gawah
- 1994 Rajkumar Santoshi – Damini
- 1995 Sooraj Barjatya – Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!
- 1996 Aditya Chopra – Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
- 1997 Shekhar Kapur – Bandit Queen
- 1998 J. P. Dutta – Border
- 1999 Karan Johar – Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
2000s
- 2000 Sanjay Leela Bhansali – Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
- 2001 Rakesh Roshan – Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai
- 2002 Ashutosh Gowariker – Lagaan
- 2003 Sanjay Leela Bhansali – Devdas
- 2004 Rakesh Roshan – Koi... Mil Gaya
- 2005 Kunal Kohli – Hum Tum
- 2006 Sanjay Leela Bhansali – Black
- 2007 Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra – Rang De Basanti
- 2008 Aamir Khan – Taare Zameen Par
- 2009 Ashutosh Gowariker – Jodhaa Akbar
2010s
- 2010 Rajkumar Hirani – 3 Idiots
- 2011 Karan Johar – My Name Is Khan
- 2012 Zoya Akhtar – Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
- 2013 Sujoy Ghosh – Kahaani
- 2014 Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
- 2015 Vikas Bahl – Queen
- 2016 Sanjay Leela Bhansali – Bajirao Mastani
- 2017 Nitesh Tiwari – Dangal
- 2018 Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari – Bareilly Ki Barfi
- 2019 Meghna Gulzar – Raazi
2020s
- 2020 Zoya Akhtar – Gully Boy
- Aditya Dhar – Uri: The Surgical Strike
- Jagan Shakti – Mission Mangal
- Nitesh Tiwari – Chhichhore
- Siddharth Anand – War
- 2021 Om Raut – Tanhaji
- Anubhav Sinha – Thappad
- Anurag Basu – Ludo
- Sharan Sharma – Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl
- Shoojit Sircar – Gulabo Sitabo
- 2022 Vishnuvardhan – Shershah
- 2023 Sanjay Leela Bhansali – Gangubai Kathiawadi