Dibakar Banerjee Biography

Dibakar Banerjee is an Indian film director and screenwriter, who is mostly known for his films, Khosla Ka Ghosla and Abhay Deol starrer, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, which he also wrote. Both these films won National Film Awards. He started his career in advertising, and continues to be an ad filmmaker; in 2010 he also directed a Coca Cola commercial.

In 2010, he made his third film, Love Sex Aur Dhokha, where one of the three sub-plots in the movie is loosely based on the infamous 2004 DPS MMS scandal.

Early Life And Education

Dibaker Banerjee was born and brought up at New Rohtak Road near Karol Bagh, in West Delhi, and studied at Bal Bharati Public School, Pusa Road, Old Rajinder Nagar, Delhi.

After finishing his schooling he joined the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad to study visual communications and graphic design, but left it two and a half years later. Back in Delhi, seven months later he started working with corporate audio-visual filmmaker Sam Mathews, as a trainee.

Career

He joined advertising as a copywriter first with Shems Combit and then TBWA Anthem, and later he joined Contract Advertising, Delhi, where he worked under Pradeep Sarkar, who was then a creative director at the agency. Screenwriter Jaideep Sahni was also one of his colleagues, who later penned Khosla Ka Ghosla’s story, screenplay, dialogues and lyrics.

In 1997, he left Contract to launch his own company, 'Watermark', with two ex-NID friends, making ad films and promos for Channel V and MTV. Eventually, he moved to Mumbai, and shot his debut feature film, Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006) starring Anupam Kher and Boman Irani, in 45 days. The film went on to receive not just accolades but also a National Film Award amongst others, and he was included in the list of new filmmakers who were bringing about a marked shift in Bollywood themes.

In 2008, he co-wrote and directed his second feature, also set in his hometown Delhi, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, with Abhay Deol and Paresh Rawal; it was premiered at the IFFI, Goa, and also at MoMA, New York. Commercially, it was released in the 26/11 weekend, though it went on to become a sleeper hit; later, New York Times described it as "a breezy mix of satire and realism", and the film won three Filmfare Awards.

Personal Life

Dibakar Banerjee is married to Richa Puranesh, who also has an advertising background, and the couple lives in Parel, a suburb of Mumbai.