Sujoy Ghosh is an Indian filmmaker and actor who is known for making several Bollywood films. He is regarded as one of the most unconventional filmmakers of Bollywood.
Wiki/Biography
Sujoy Ghosh was born on Saturday, 21 May 1966 (age 57 years; as of 2023) in Bhowanipore, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. His zodiac sign is Gemini. He did his initial schooling at St. James’ School, Kolkata. At the age of 13, he moved to London, England where he attended Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College for further schooling. He pursued a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in computing at Manchester University from 1986 to 1989. He pursued an MBA at Alliance Manchester Business School from 1990 to 1992. He worked as Head of the South Asia division of Reuters from 1993 to 2000 before quitting his job to pursue a career in filmmaking.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 10″
Weight (approx.): 70 kg
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
He belongs to a Bengali family.
Parents & Siblings
His father was a taxi driver, and his mother was a psychiatrist. His parents had a runaway marriage.
Wife & Children
He got married to Vaishali who is a psychologist. The couple has a daughter named Diya Annapurna Ghosh who is a film director and a son named Agni who is an ex-rugby player and later worked at Phaidon International.
Sujoy Ghosh with his wife, Vaishali Ghosh
Sujoy Ghosh (extreme right) with his daughter, Diya Annapurna Ghosh
Religion
He follows Hinduism.
Career
Director, Producer, and Screenplay Writer
Film
He made his debut as a director and screenplay writer in 2003 with the film Jhankaar Beats, featuring Juhi Chawla and Sanjay Suri, which was a critical hit. In January 2005, he started his own production house named Boundscript Motion Pictures Private Limited. His debut film as a producer was Aladin in 2009 which featured Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, and Riteish Deshmukh in lead roles. He later directed, produced, and wrote the screenplay for various films including Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh in 2016, Badla in 2019, Bob Biswas in 2021, and Jaane Jaan in 2023.
Sujoy Ghosh with Vidya Balan (right) during the promotion of Kahaani 2 film
Short Film
His debut short film was Ahalya in 2015 which featured Radhika Roy and Soumitra Chatterjee in lead roles. He later made Anukul in 2017.
Sujoy Ghosh (right) during the shoot of the short film, Anukul
Television
Sujoy Ghosh made his television debut with Teen Paheliyan in 2018 which was aired on Star Plus.
Web Series
His debut web series was Typewriter in 2019 which was streamed on Netflix and featured Purab Kohli and Palomi Ghosh in lead roles.
Actor
Film
Hindi
He made his acting debut with a cameo appearance in Nobel Chor in 2012.
Bengali
His debut acting role was Byomkesh Bakshi in Satyenweshi in 2013.
Awards
- Most Entertaining Thriller Film Award at Big Star Entertainment Awards for Kahaani in 2012
- Best Screenplay (Original) Award at the 60th National Film Awards for Kahaani in 2013
- Best Director Award at the 58th Filmfare Awards for Kahaani in 2013
- Best Story Award at Colors Screen Awards for Kahaani in 2013
- Best Director and Best Screenplay Awards at Star Guild Awards for Kahaani in 2013
- Best Story and Best Screenplay Awards at Times of India Film Awards for Kahaani in 2013
- Hottest Film Producer of the Year Award at Stardust Awards for Kahaani in 2013
- Best Film-Critics, Best Director-Critics, and Best Story Awards at Zee Cine Awards for Kahaani in 2013
- Most Surprise Hit of the Year Award at ETC Bollywood Business Awards for Kahaani in 2013
Favourites
- Bengali Film: Ganga (1960), Agantuk (1991), Kharij (1982)
- Hindi Film: Parineeta (2005)
- Tamil Film: Mahanadi (1994)
Facts/Trivia
- He is known for doing innovative promotional activities for his films. In 2019, he, along with Tapsee Pannu, did a commentary in Bengali on the Star Jalsa channel to promote his film Badla.
Sujoy Ghosh (centre) doing commentary while promoting his film Badla
- Sujoy was an avid story reader during his childhood particularly stories by Swapan Kumar, Nihar Ranjan Gupta, Hemendra Kumar Roy, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Buddhadeb Guha, Sunil Ganguly, and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay.
- In an interview, Sujoy disclosed that his maternal grandfather belonged to Nepal and came to Kolkata after he was named an accused in a murder case. He later became a rich man’s chauffeur and eloped with the daughter of another rich man.
- While working in Reuters before becoming a filmmaker in 1999, he earned around Rs 50 lakhs per annum which was a huge amount at that time.
- Kareena Kapoor Khan, Vijay Varma, and Jaideep Ahlawat revealed Sujoy Ghosh’s unconventional directing style in an interview and said that Sujoy would never look into the monitor, instead, he would keep looking at them between the scenes. He would sing funny songs before shooting serious scenes.
- He is a huge fan of Amitabh Bachchan. In an interview, he revealed his earliest memory of Amitabh Bachchan when he saw the film Namak Haram. He said that he was watching the film with his father and was impressed with Bachchan by his dialogue ‘Hai koi maai ka laal jo maa ka doodh piya ho.’
Sujoy Ghosh with Amitabh Bachchan
- In an interview, he revealed that he would like to make a film based on the popular story Kabuliwala. He also said that had he not been a filmmaker, he would have become anything, even a taxi driver, as he considers every job equal.
- He worked many odd jobs including as a math tutor, waiter, and store attendant when he was struggling during his initial filmmaking days.
- He has also written the tagline ‘Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo Re’ for the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders.
- In 2017, he resigned as Jury Chief of the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) after the Information and Broadcasting Ministry reportedly removed two films named S Durga and Nude from the selected list of films.