Neeraj Ghaywan

Neeraj Ghaywan was born in 1980[2] and brought up in Hyderabad, to Maharashtrian parents.[3] His father was a research scientist, and mother ran a garment store.[4] He did his schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya Shivrampally (National Police Academy). After completing his degree in Electrical Engineering from Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, in 2002, he did his MBA in Marketing from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune.[5]

After completing his graduation, Ghaywan worked as an engineer in UTV New Media, Hindustan Times and Tech Mahindra. Dissatisfied with his career in the corporate world, he started writing as a film critic for the now defunct web portal Passionforcinema.com. According to him, that interest grew into passion that was eventually encouraged by director Anurag Kashyap.[6] He made his first short film, Independence that was shortlisted for the In Competition section of PFCOne, an online one-minute film festival, in 2010.[7] Ghaywan then assisted Kashyap in the making of Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and Ugly (2013), directing two short films in the meanwhile, Shor and Epiphany.[4] Ghaywan recalls fond memories of working with Kashyap, whom he considers as his mentor.[8]

Ghaywan with the cast of Masaan; Richa Chadda, Shweta Tripathi and Vicky Kaushal at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival

In January 2014, a screenplay he co-wrote with Varun Grover called Fly Away Solo was awarded the Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award.[9] He then made a motion picture based on it, Masaan in 2015. The film received overwhelming acclaim from critics, the mainstream media and audience alike. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 92% based on 13 reviews.[10] The New York Times considered it to be a leading example of increased realism in Indian cinema.[11][12] The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard segment at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won two awards, including the FIPRESCI Prize[13] and has since gone on to achieve a cult status.[14] Ghaywan received the Indira Gandhi Award for the Best Debut Film of a director at the 63rd National Film Awards.[15] He made his first commercial in 2016 for British Airways.[16]

Ghaywan wrote and directed his third short film Juice on gender politics of middle class Indian households starring Shefali Shah in 2017.[17] The film received the Filmfare Award for Best Short Film-Fiction that year.[18] In 2019, Ghaywan replaced Vikramaditya Motwane as co-director alongside Anurag Kashyap for the second season of Netflix's highly acclaimed series Sacred Games.[19]

Ajeeb Daastaans, an anthology film, was his next directorial venture.[20] It consisted of four short films made by four directors.[20] Produced by Karan Johar and Netflix, Ghaywan directed the third segment, titled Geeli Pucchi which featured Aditi Rao Hydari and Konkona Sen Sharma in lead roles.[21] In a review for Hindustan Times, Rohan Nahar wrote, "Ghaywan addresses caste and gender politics; patriarchy and privilege. And he does this with an intense empathy for his characters, both of whom display morally questionable behaviour."[21] He also found it remarkable that Ghaywan has been able to craft a distinctly lyrical style before having even directed his second feature film.[21]

Ghaywan was an episodic director on the second season of Amazon Prime Video’s Made in Heaven. The series, which has found major success with streaming audiences and critics, had its season 2 debut in August 2023. The show is a departure from the stylistic themes of his previous work, with a lavish look and feel set against the backdrop of big Indian weddings.