Anurag Basu


Anurag Basu অনুরাগ বসু is an Indian reality show-judge, director, actor, screenwriter and producer. He began his directing career in television, moving to feature films in 2002. Basu achieved initial success with his films tackling the themes of passion and adultery such as Life in a... Metro, Kites, Gangster and Murder. Later, he directed comedy-drama films such as the critically acclaimed and commercially successful Barfi!

Early life

Basu was born into an upper-middle-class Bengali family in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. His parents, Subrato Bose and Deepshikha Bose, were award-winning theatrical artists and Basu grew up watching them performing in his father's theatre company. He attended BSP Senior Secondary School, Sector -IV, Bhilai Steel Plant, Steel Authority of India Ltd. Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, spending part of his life in Garia, Sonarpur, South Kolkata. He received a B.Sc. degree in Physics honours. from the University of Mumbai, intending to study cinematography at FTII, Pune; however, during his college years in Mumbai he had an opportunity to assist on a number of levels in TV and film projects. After trying to remain involved with filmmaking, Basu became an assistant director to Raman Kumar on Tara.

Career

Television

Basu was just twenty years old when in mid of 1994 he began his television career as an assistant director on Tara, after six months in the end of 1994 only, he was given full responsibility for directing about 712 episodes. He directed television serials, trying genres ranging from daily soaps to thrillers such as Saturday Suspense and Ajeeb Dastaan, and horror. Basu's most successful work during this period was the Balaji Telefilms soap Koshish...Ek Aashaa in 2000 and he made pilot episodes of Indian television shows including Kyun ki saans bhi kabhi bahu thi, Kahani ghar ghar ki and Kasouti zindagi ki in 2001 and 2002. He began his own company and initially he produced TV serials for Zee TV and Sony channel. The popular shows of his company were Manzilien Apni Apni, Miit, Thriller at Ten, and Horror Shows on Zee. He himself directed the TV series Miit, Manzilien Apni Apni and all his other series. Basu has directed many television shows. In 2000 he received a RAPA Award for Best Director Award from the Radio and TV Advertisers Practitioners Association, followed by an Aashirwad Award for Best Director two years later. Basu returned to television in 2007 to produce and direct the college drama Love Story and hosted the Bengali reality show Ke Hobe Biggest Fan for Zee Bangla in 2010. Basu started his own film production house, Ishana Movies, in 2007 and the first film of his production company was the 2007 musical drama film Life in a... Metro with co-producer UTV. Currently his series Stories by Rabindranath Tagore is airing on Netflix and EPIC Channel.

Films

From his first job in films as an extra actor to his first film as director, it was a journey of nearly eleven years. His first film was the mystery-drama Saaya for Mahesh Bhatt's production company, Vishesh Films, starring John Abraham and Tara Sharma, which failed at the box office and was panned by critics for its loose screenplay.
Basu's second film was 2004's Murder. The film dealt with adultery and contained sex scenes, unusual for Indian cinema. Despite its "A" certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification, it was well received by critics, who appreciated performances by Mallika Sherawat, Emraan Hashmi and Ashmit Patel. Basu's next movie was Gangster, in which he first collaborated with Pritam. He was diagnosed with acute leukemia in 2004, halfway through Tumsa Nahin Dekha. Basu was immediately hospitalised, directing parts of the film from his hospital bed. He gave instructions by dictaphone for camera angles and script changes, with Mahesh Bhatt and Mohit Suri completing the film while the director underwent chemotherapy.
His next film was 2010's Kites, starring Hrithik Roshan, Bárbara Mori and Kangana Ranaut.
In 2012 Basu's film Barfi!, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Ileana D'Cruz, opened to largely-positive reviews and was well received at the Busan International Film Festival. Barfi! was selected for the Taipei and Morocco film festivals. Barfi won the prestigious Grand Jury Award at Okinawa International Film Festival in Japan. It was India's entry for the Academy Awards, but was criticized after Basu was accused of plagiarizing several Hollywood films. It was a box-office hit during its opening week, earning Rs. 586 million, and was the third-highest-grossing film that year.
His thriller film Jagga Jasoos was shot in Cape Town, South Africa. Originally planned for a release in 2014, schedule conflicts set back release. The film was produced by Basu and Ranbir Kapoor's new production company in association with Disney Studios. Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt were under consideration for lead roles. Reports from Cape Town were that the real-world romance of leads Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif and occasional arguments between the two caused some delays and resulted in scenes not having the import intended by director Anurag Basu. By 20 March 2014, the director had completed 20 days of filming with his leads and, being unhappy with initial efforts by actor Ranbir Kapoor, used the additional schedule time to re-shoot some scenes. Due to the reshoots, the film was not released until 2017.

Personal life

Basu is married to Tani Basu and has two daughters, Ishana and Ahana.

Filmography

;Films
YearTitleDirectorWriterScreenplay
2003Saaya
2003Kucch To Hai
2004Murder
2004
2006Gangster
2007Life in a... Metro
2010Kites
2012Barfi!
2017Jagga Jasoos
2020Ludo

;Television
YearAwardsCategoryFilm
2008Filmfare AwardsBest ScreenplayLife in a Metro
2008IIFA AwardsBest ScreenplayLife in a Metro
2012Big Star Entertainment AwardsMost Entertaining Director
2013IIFA AwardsBest DirectorBarfi
2013IIFA AwardsBest ScreenplayBarfi
2013Okinawa International Movie FestivalGrand Jury AwardBarfi
2013Zee Cine AwardsBest Director
2013Zee Cine AwardsBest Screenplay
2013Zee Cine AwardsPower Club Award
2013Times of India Film AwardsBest Director
2013Colors Screen AwardsBest Director
2013Bollywood Hungama Surfers Choice Movie AwardsBest Director
2013Star Guild AwardsBest Director