Rajkumar Santoshi

Rajkumar Santoshi is an acclaimed award-winning Indian film director, producer and screenwriter of Hindi films. A recipient of several accolades including three National Film Awards and six Filmfare Awards, he made his directorial debut with the action drama Ghayal (1990), starring Sunny Deol, Meenakshi Sheshadri and Amrish Puri. The film emerged as a major critical and commercial success, making Santoshi a household name in Hindi cinema. The film also won him the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment as well as his first Filmfare Award for Best Director.

His next film, the universally acclaimed social drama Damini (1993), which again starred Deol, Sheshadri, and Puri, also emerged as a blockbuster. It is widely considered the best movie made by Santoshi, garnering him the Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay and his second consecutive Filmfare Award for Best Director. During this period, Santoshi also received praise for directing the comedy Andaz Apna Apna (1994) starring Aamir Khan and Salman Khan together, which despite being a box-office flop has attained cult status. Later, he directed the successful action romance film Barsaat (1995), which marked the film debut of Bobby Deol and Twinkle Khanna. His next action drama Ghatak (1996), again emerged as a big commercial and critical success. Both Andaz Apna Apna and Ghatak earned him nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Director.

Although his next film, the 2000 action thriller Pukar, was not successful, his work was appreciated and he won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration for it. He followed it by directing two moderate commercial successes—the biopic The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002) and the action thriller Khakee (2004) —both of which earned him nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Director. His highest-grossing film of the decade came in 2009 with the romantic comedy Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani starring Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif, which grossed ₹1.2 billion (US$14 million) worldwide.

He is the son of producer-director P. L. Santoshi and his second wife. Rajkumar was born in Chennai (then Madras) and currently lives with his wife Manila and children; Ram and Tanisha.

Santoshi started his career in 1982 as an assistant director on Govind Nihalani on the coming-of-age film Vijeta (1982) and the crime drama Ardh Satya (1983).

Santoshi made his directorial debut with the action drama Ghayal (1990), starring Sunny Deol and Meenakshi Seshadri in lead roles. The film tells the story of a person in search of his missing brother and the events that follow. It emerged as a critical and commercial success, ranking as the second highest-grossing Hindi film of the year. Ghayal earned Santoshi his first Filmfare Award for Best Director, the Filmfare Award for Best Story, and the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.

Santoshi followed it up with was the crime drama thriller Damini (1993), which dealt with themes considered bold at the time, such as the status of women in our society and the perspective of people towards women. The film starred Seshadri in the lead role, alongside Deol, Rishi Kapoor and Amrish Puri. It opened to universal critical acclaim, with widespread praise for its storyline, execution and themes; moreover, It also emerged as a major commercial success at the box-office, ranking as the fifth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year. Damini earned Santoshi his second consecutive Filmfare Award for Best Director, thus becoming the only director to have won the award for his first two films. The film is now considered a cult feminist film and important for portraying women empowerment in cinema. The pathbreaking film was praised for breaking social taboos and handling the subject of rape with sensitivity; a rarity in Bollywood at the time.

After making two back-to-back serious films, Santoshi decided to make a light film. He then wrote and directed the comedy Andaz Apna Apna (1994), starring an ensemble cast of Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Raveena Tandon, Karisma Kapoor, Paresh Rawal (in a dual role) and Shakti Kapoor in lead roles. The film received critical acclaim upon release but emerged as a commercial failure at the box-office. It earned Santoshi his third nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Director. However over the years, it is considered a cult classic comedy, with its lexicon having become a part of everyday and ordinary language.