Amar Kaushik is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for directing Stree (2018), Bala (2019) and Bhediya (2022).

Amar Kaushik
The Director Amar Khaushik of the film AABA, at the Presentation, during the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI-2017), in Panaji, Goa on November 27, 2017.jpg
Amar Kaushik, IFFI (2017)
Born
Occupations
  • Film director
  • film producer
  • screenwriter
Years active2008–present
Spouse
Nalini Neha
(m. 2008)

Early life edit

Amar Kaushik grew up in Medo, Arunachal Pradesh[1] where his father was a forest ranger who worked for the Indian Forest Service and his mother Shashi was a school teacher. When he was 10 years old, the family moved to Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.[2] He later studied mass communications in Delhi and moved to Mumbai in 2006.[3] In 2009, Kaushik was attacked on a bus by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena members who mistakenly believed he was director Anurag Kashyap. MNS leader Raj Thackeray had criticised Kashyap for calling his film Bombay Velvet and had unsuccessfully demanded that he change the name to Mumbai Velvet.[4]

Career edit

Kaushik began his film career in 2008, working as Raj Kumar Gupta's assistant director on Aamir. He teamed up with Gupta again to serve as associate director for No One Killed Jessica and Ghanchakkar. In addition to crew duties, Kaushik had small acting roles in each of the three films.[5] After working as an associate director on the Onir films Sorry Bhai!, I Am and Shab, Kaushik ventured into solo directing with his short film "Aaaba". The script was written by Kauhsik and based on a story by his mother.[2] It was funded with loans from his friends, including Raj Kumar Gupta.[6] Shot entirely in Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh, "Aaba" was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival.[7]

Kaushik began shooting his feature film Stree in January 2018. Starring Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor, the horror film released on 31 August 2018. Stree became a surprise hit, earning 125.57 crore by 1 October.[8][9][10] Kaushik's upcoming projects include an untitled film on the subject of surrogacy and the sequel to Stree, Stree 2.[10] Most Notable and commercial successful movie of Kaushik is 2019 movie"Bala" starring Ayushman, Bhumi & Yami.

Filmography edit

Short films edit

Year Title Director Writer Producer
2015 Dry Dreams No No Executive
Fuddu Boys No No Executive
2017 Aaba Yes Yes No
2018 Sone Bhi Do Yaaron Yes No No
2019 Malgook Bidro Yes No No

Feature films edit

Year Title Director Writer Producer
2018 Stree Yes No No
2019 Bala Yes No No
2022 Bhediya Yes No No
2023 Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga No Yes Yes

Other credits edit

Year Title Role
2008 Aamir Assistant director
Sorry Bhai!
2010 I Am
2011 No One Killed Jessica Associate director
2013 Go Goa Gone Assistant director
Fukrey Second unit director
Ghanchakkar Associate director
2014 Mumbai Delhi Mumbai Post Production supervisor
2017 Shab Associate director
Beyond the Clouds Assistant director
2019 Line of Descent

Television edit

As director only
Year Title Notes
2018 Table No. 5 Zee5 series; 6 episodes

References edit

  1. ^ "Varun Dhawan And Kriti Sanon Share Their Experiences Of Filming Bhediya In Arunachal Pradesh".
  2. ^ a b Patwardhan, Aditi (25 February 2017). "Meet the Director of Aaba, the Only Award-Winning Indian Short Film at Berlin International Festival". The Better India.
  3. ^ Malik, Ektaa (18 September 2017). "Inheritance of Loss". Indian Express.
  4. ^ Subhash K. Jha (25 November 2009). "Anurag Kashyap look a like beaten". Times of India.
  5. ^ Anahita Panicker (29 August 2018). "Supernatural, spooky and strange". The Hindu.
  6. ^ "Did you know Stree director Amar Kaushik took money from Raj Kumar Gupta to make his first short film?". India TV. 10 August 2018.
  7. ^ "Short Film Aaba Bags International Jury Award at Berlinale". News 18. IANS. 20 February 2017.
  8. ^ Roychoudhury, Shibaji (1 October 2018). "Stree box-office collection week 5: The Shraddha Kapoor film beats Alia Bhatt's Raazi; makes Rs 125.57 crore". Times Now.
  9. ^ Dedhia, Sonil (4 September 2018). "Stree Box Office Collections: Success That's Driven By Fear". Mid-Day.
  10. ^ a b Sanjeev Kumar Verma (21 October 2018). "Bihar's son-in-law promises sequel to Stree". The Telegraph.

External links edit