Meghna Gulzar

Meghna Gulzar, born on 13 December 1973 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, is a prominent Indian writer, director and producer whose body of work bridges socially‑conscious storytelling with commercial appeal. The daughter of legendary poet‑filmmaker Gulzar and acclaimed actress Raakhee, she was named after the river Meghna in Bangladesh, a detail that reflects her family’s literary sensibilities and cultural awareness. After completing a degree in sociology, she honed her craft at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, earning a short filmmaking course that later informed her nuanced visual style, and she began her professional journey writing for The Times of India and the NFDC’s Cinema in India while also publishing poetry with the Poetry Society of India. Meghna’s early industry experience includes assisting renowned director Saeed Akhtar Mirza and later working alongside her father on Maachis and Hu Tu Tu, where she contributed as an assistant and scriptwriter, gaining insight into the mechanics of narrative cinema. Her directorial debut came in 2002 with the drama Filhaal…, featuring Sushmita Sen and Tabu, followed by the light‑hearted Just Married (2007) and a short for the anthology Dus Kahaniyaan, but it was the 2015 crime‑drama Talvar—based on the Noida double murder case—that earned her a Filmfare nomination for Best Director and solidified her reputation for handling complex, real‑life subjects. The breakthrough commercial and critical triumph arrived with the 2018 espionage thriller Raazi, starring Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal, which became one of the highest‑grossing Indian films and secured her the Filmfare Award for Best Director; the film’s adaptation controversy with author Harinder Sikka also highlighted the challenges of translating literature to screen. She continued to explore socially relevant narratives with Chhapaak (2020), depicting acid‑attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal, and the biographical war epic Sam Bahadur (2023), for which she received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film Promoting National, Social and Environmental Values, demonstrating her evolving mastery of both intimate and large‑scale storytelling.