Aarti Bajaj is a well- known Indian film editor who has worked on multitudinous Bollywood movies. She has won several awards for her work. She has edited critically acclaimed movies similar as Jab We Met, etc. Aarti bajaj is known for her ability to bring out the emotional depth of the characters and the story through her editing.

Aarti Bajaj
Born (1973-02-10) 10 February 1973 (age 51)
Delhi, India
NationalityIndian
OccupationFilm editor
Years active1995–present
Spouse
(m. 1997; div. 2009)
ChildrenAaliyah Kashyap

Education edit

Aarti Bajaj moved from Delhi to Mumbai to pursue her dream of working in films at the age of 21. She did a film course in 1994 at the Xavier Institute of Communication, Mumbai. She said in an interview with India Today, "My dad threw a fit when he heard of my decision to head to Mumbai. But I told him I would run away if he didn't let me go, so he reluctantly gave in." In her internships with Bardroy Baretto and Shyam Ramanna, she "fell in love with the whole process of rewriting a film at the edit table." Having gained some experience, she began editing for music videos and advertisements. Over eight years, she became an established independent editor.

Career edit

Aarti Bajaj began editing with Anurag Kashyap's unreleased film Paanch. She followed it with his controversial and acclaimed film Black Friday for which she was nominated for a Star Screen Award in 2008.[1] She has also edited Reema Kagti's Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd., Imtiaz Ali's Jab We Met, Rockstar, Tamasha, Highway and Rajkumar Gupta's Aamir, for which she was nominated for her second Star Screen Award.[2] Later, she edited Kashyap's Dev.D, Gulaal, Ugly, Raman Raghav 2.0, Mukkabaaz, Sacred Games and Manmarziyaan. An article on The Hindu describes her as "one of those rare new-age film editors who lets the narrative breathe, supremely confident of her pacing."

In the same article, Bajaj describes her process of deciding which film she wants to contribute to. It is true that many of her works are films which are different from what one expects from the average Bollywood movie. She answers in The Hindu interview, "I enjoy mainstream Bollywood, but I don't know if I can edit them. What's the point of doing the same formula again? What do you look forward to? I know I will go brain-dead." She also adds, "I like quirky, I like different." She goes on to emphasise the importance of mental stimulation and how every project she does must present to her some sort of challenge. Her professionalism is such that she only does one project at a time to ensure compete focus.

Bajaj has worked on films across different genres, from Rockstar to Sacred Games, which demand different editing styles, and has proved herself to be a versatile editor.[3]

Filmography edit

Year Film Note
2023 Choona Releasing on Netflix
2023 Jubilee Released on Amazon Prime Video
2022 Dobaaraa
2022 Thar Released on Netflix
2021 Shaadisthan Released on Disney+ Hotstar
2020 Love Aaj Kal Released on Netflix
2019 Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyun Aata Hai?
2018 Manmarziyaan
2018–2019 Sacred Games TV series;
Won—Asian Academy Creative Award for Best Editing
2018 Cake Pakistani film
2017 Mukkabaaz
2017 Jab Harry Met Sejal
2016 Raman Raghav 2.0
2016 Love Shagun
2015 Tamasha Won—FOI Online Award for Best Editing
2014 Revolver Rani
2014 Highway Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Editing
2013 Ugly Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Editing
2013 Ghanchakkar
2012 Ishaqzaade
2012 Paan Singh Tomar Nominated—Screen Award for Best Editing
2011 Rockstar
2011 No One Killed Jessica
2010 Do Dooni Chaar
2010 Mumbai Cutting Segment: "Pramod Bhai 23"
2010 Karthik Calling Karthik
2009 Love Aaj Kal
2009 Gulaal
2009 Dev.D
2008 Aamir
2008 Maharathi
2007 Jab We Met
2007 No Smoking
2007 Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.
2007 Black Friday
2003 Paanch Unreleased
1999 Last Train to Mahakali Short film

References edit

  1. ^ "14th Annual Star Screen Awards nominations". Screenindia.com. Retrieved 8 March 2009.
  2. ^ "15th Annual Star Screen Awards nominations". Bollywood Hungama. Archived from the original on 27 February 2009. Retrieved 8 March 2009.
  3. ^ "Aarti Bajaj; an editor who chases the art of deconstruction and reconstruction". The Compass. 31 October 2018. Archived from the original on 23 November 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2019.

External links edit