MovieChat Forums > Kaminey (2009) Discussion > Best Directors in India now.. VB, follow...

Best Directors in India now.. VB, followed by...


1. Vishal Bhardwaj (Makdee, Maqbool, Omkara, Kaminey)
2. Anurag Kashyap (Black Friday, Dev. D, Gulaal)
3. Dibakar Banerjee (Khosla ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye)
4. Ashutosh Gowariker (Lagaan, Swades, Jodha Akbar)
5. Rajat Kapoor (Mithya, Mixed Doubles, Raghu Romeo)
6. Nishikanth Kamat (Dombivili Fast, Mumbai Meri Jaan)
7. Farhan Akhtar (Dil Chahta Hai, Lakshya)
8. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (Rang de Basanti, Delhi 6)
9. Madhur Bhandarkar (Page 3, Corporate, Fashion)
10. Imtiaz Ali (Socha na tha, Jab we met)

my top 10 now... who knows may change with the level playing field that has now been created by people like Ronnie Screwvala of UTV

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I will place Madhur Bhandarkar higher than many.

Anurag Kashyap is yet to prove himself in cleaner enetertainrs.

Rajat Kapoor and Nishikant Kamat should be down the list.

Why no mention of Aditya Chopra and KJo, they are overboard, but they do cater to one different genre. Do keep in mind genre before making the list.

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Having Yash raj clan and K Jo associated even remotely to any list that talks about merit is nothing but Blasphemy and insult to good cinema, intelligent cinema, and the universal theme of hardwork reaping reward.

This is just my rightful opinion

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[deleted]

in such a talented list, rajat kapoor should be a little lower ... but surely this is as close as it is to the directorial gems we have currently

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This is an almost perfect list... I would make 2 small changes.. will place Imtiaz Ali ahead of Madhur Bhandarkar.. and will place Anurag Kashyap at no.1.. and VB at 2..

and yeah.. putting names like KJo in this list would be blasphemy

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In my opinion this should be the list.

1. Anurag Kashyap (Black Friday, Dev.D, Gulaal, Paanch)

2. Vishal Bhardwaj (Makdee, Maqbool, Omkara, Blue Umbrella, Kaminey)

3. Mani Ratnam (Guru, Kannathil Muthamittal, Dil Se, Iruvaar, Bombay, Roja, Thalapati, Anjali, Nayakan, Mouna Ragam, Idaya Kovil, and more...)

4. Shyam Benegal (Welcome to Sajjanpur, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Hari-Bhari, Mandi, Kalyug, Kondara, and more...)

5. Ashutosh Gowariker (Lagaan, Swades, Jodhaa Akbar)

6. Rajkumar Hirani (Munnabhai M.B.B.S, Lage Raho Munnabhai)

7. Nagesh Kukonoor (Dor, Iqbal, 3 Deewarein, Hyderabad Blues)

8. Dibakar Banerjee (Khosla ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye)

9. Farhan Akhtar (Dil Chahta Hai, Lakshya, Positive(short film))

10.Nishikanth Kamat (Dombivili Fast, Mumbai Meri Jaan)


If I was to add another name that deserves to be on this list, it would be Neeraj Pandey. However, he has only made one film so far, his full talent is yet to be tested.

Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra would definitely be on this list before he made Delhi 6

Madhur Bhandarkar in my opinion is a bit overrated. His films do explore interesting subjects, but frankly the direction is weak.

Imtiaz Ali has consecutively impressed me with his light-hearted romantic stories, and his direction is superb, especially in Love Aaj Kal. He would probably be settled at #11 or #12 on the list.

Rajat Kapoor offers up a unique style of film-making, but he has still not made a film that simply blows the audiences away.


Possible future entries in the list: Neeraj Pandey, Shashant Shah, Raj Kumar Gupta

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I would add two more names.. Navdeep Singh (Manorama Six Feet Under) and Zoya Akhtar (Luck By Chance).. true that they have one movie till now to their credit but they have shown immense potential in their respective debut movies..

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I fail to see how Kashyap is considered a very good director.

Dev D was a good effort, but it did have vulgar elements to create controversy/sensation. Plus it was a one time watch.

Black Friday too was ok.

Just making dark films/different films does not make a person better director.

I will place Raj Kumar Hirani and Madhur Bhandarkar much above him. I am pissed off because there are many people who place him at second or third spot in best directors list...hello, we do have Shyam Benegal and Gulzar and Yash Chopra alive yet, in prescence of Farhan, Rajkumar Hirani, Vishal Bharadwaj, even Aditya Chopra...that genre can be tackled only by Chopras. And there are many takers of love stories and light genre which Chopras cater to.

Vishal Bharadwaj, Bannerjee, Hirani, Bhandarkar is miles ahead of Anurag Kashyap.

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Well.. in my opinion Anurag Kashyap is right up there at the top.. Dev.D was one of the few brilliant movies this year.. Vulgar elements were there not to cause sensation but to portray things as realistically as possible.. Same with Gulaal.. No Smoking was of a radical genre which nobody had even heard about it in Bollywood.. And Black Friday is a landmark movie.. more so because of the issues it talks about and at the same time it's great cinema..

On the other hand, I think its Madhur Bhandarkar's movies try to create sensation.. He puts all the same things in all his movies... and I find his movies repeating themselves, though set in different contexts..

Raj Kumar Hirani's both movies were very good.. but he still has long way to go as far as the technical acpects are concerned..

But then.. everyone has his own opinion.. For me, Kashyap, along Vishal Bhardwaj, is the best we have in our country.. He was not selected as a Jury member in Venice Film Festival this year for nothing...

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Hi ... I dont think it would be fair to come up with a list of best directors ... these directors (Some of them) have to prove themselves with more movies. Here's my list of the 10 best directed films of the recent past:

1) A Wednesday (Neeraj Pandey)
2) Kaminey (Vishal bhardwaj)
3) Aamir (Raj Kumar Gupta)
4) Bheja Fry (Sagar Bellary)
5) Dev D (Anurag Kashyap)
6) Rang de Basanti (Rakyesh OP Mehra)
7) Lage Raho (Raj Kumar Hirani)
8) Jab We Met (Imtiyaz Ali)
9) Taare Zameen Par (Aamir Khan)
10) Chak De (Shimit Amin)


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How come most of u have left out Raj Kumar Santoshi?
I really love his movies from Ghayal to Andaaz Apna APna and also Khakee
although family wasnt that great.

I think Karan Johar is great.

my list (I assume we are talking about current directors')

1. Raj Kumar Santhoshi
2. Vishal Bhardwaj
3. Imtiaz Ali.
4. Ashutosh Gowariker
5. Shimit Amin
6. Raj Kumar Hirani
7. Yash Chopra
8. Rajshi Bro's
9. Farhan Akhtar
10. Shaad Ali (will let 1 go for Jhoom)

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Bheja Fry was a rip off scene to scene line to line from a French movie Le dîner de cons. Still the French version was 10^10 times better than the hindi version.

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Most people in India do nt watch and do not care about French movies. I am sure the French share the same sentiment about Indian movies. Infact even more ... i am sure the French audience wouldnt know or care had one of their movies been ripped off of an Indian film! So stop fussing and get on with it.

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The point here is not that whether French care about our movies or not and vice-versa... The point is that Bheja Fry was not original.. But I still feel that it was brilliantly made movie.. would love to watch the original movie though..

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The point is that I dont know whether or not Bheja Fry was original and neither do 99% of the audiences. Fact remains that Indian humour is very differnet from French or British or American humour and while people may call it a scene by scene copy, I am sure that the dialogues (which actually make films work) are completely different. And hence ... Bheja Fry was a brilliantly made, acted and "original" film!

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I would rather watch the original before making the judgement that it's humor is completely different...

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Fair enough. Just that I live in France so I thought I might mention it. A lot of the humor in films is in the dialogues and how the actors say it. A hilariously funny dialogue in hindi, when translated into French or english for that matter, loses its punch.

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3) Aamir (Raj Kumar Gupta)
Sure. If watching Cavite (2005) on DVD, lifting its script, making an Indianized version of it and subsequently pretending it to be an original story he came up with makes Rajkumar Gupta a great director, then yes, he is.

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I do feel that Kashyap is an interesting addition to the industry but he is by no means amongst the best. His films are like that of a very promising student filmmaker. For one thing, if he wants me to take his films seriously, he needs to brush up on the technical quality of his movies. The ADR scenes in Dev D were just unacceptable.

Vishal's films are on a whole other level.

Maybe Kashyap should take a look at Farhan's, Vishal's or even Zoya's films and learn a thing or two.

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I fail to see how Kashyap is considered a very good director.
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Excatly You have failed to see that. that too miserably on top of that.

Anurag Kashyap and Vishal Bhardwaj are the top two contemporary hindi movie directors around. I would place Vishal Bhardwaj on number one just because he can write, compose, sing while directing his own movies. And excelling in every department. He is the most talented one around.

coming back to Anurag Kashyap. All his movies so far have been ground breaking in their own respect. I wouldn't care about their revenue earning. Had they been released for a global audience, they would have seen a cult following. He doesn't make films just for the sake of it.

I hope to see more creative and talented film makers in future, who make quality cinema. As India is developing in a fast pace, indian movie goers needs to grow their 'movie taste' too. I can see it already happening. As more people are educated and have the right mind to appreciate quality work.

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Navdeep Singh - I was about to add him but read your post - dont forget this dormant master :))

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My list would be almost the same. I think would include Aparna Sen (36 chowringhee lane, Mr& Mrs Iyer and 15 Park Avenue) ahead of Farhan. But I guess Farhan represents "mainstream" commercial cinema and therefore makes it a more "balanced list".

I also think Madhur Bhandarkar's movies are overrated and too preachy.

Rakesh Omprakash Mehra needs to be patient and consistent throughout his films. His movies start well and somehow get messed up in the later half.

RGV in his better days sneaked in few brilliant movies amidst a string of bad ones. Now he makes a few average movies between a series of downright atrocious ones. Hoping something gets him back on track.

Thank you for including Kukunoor in the list.

The lists on this board are pretty good, I am relieved that Sanjay Leela Bhansali is not present in any of them.

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I would definitely place Bhardwaj, Omprakash Mehra, Farhan Akhtar in the top three of this list. Each one has managed to revolutionize hindi cinema with their breakthrough films, with Akhtar's Dil Chahta Hai, Gowariker's Rang De Basanti, and Bhardwaj's Kaminey challenging conventional mainstream cinema's standards and limits in their respective years. An honorable mention should also be given to Kashyap, Imtiaz Ali, Rajat Kapoor for breaking the mold.


My only nitpick about this post, where is Anurag Basu on this list? Didn't he provide the brilliantly executed Gangster and refreshing Life In A Metro?

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Notwithstanding the ultimate pointlessness of such lists and the fact that these are only "Bollywood" directors and don't include any regional ones (of whom I am totally ignorant), I would say these are some of the directors today I am excited about. The order of the list is loosely based on ranking but can't be too rigid:


Vishal Bhardwaj
Dibakar Banerjee
Sriram Rghavan
Mani Ratnam
Raj Kumar Hirani
Ashutosh Gowariker
Rajat Kapoor
Shimit Amin
Sudhir Mishra
Farhan Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar
Shaad Ali Sehgal
Imtiaz Ali
Anurag Kashyap
Sanjay Leela Bhansali

I thought of including Kukunoor in my list, but he can be very bad as well (case in point: Hyderabad Blues, Bollywood Calling, that same same but different movie, 8X10 Tasveer)

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Shaad Ali has made Saathiya, B&B and JBJ so far. Which of them would you consider as directorial gems? Zoya Akhtar has made Luck by Chance with was good in a couple of patches. I dont they should be mentioned above Anurag Kashyap, Neeraj Pandey and Raj Kumar Gupta. I also think that Aamir Khan deserves a mention for his directorial debut. Ans since we are leaving out the directors of the money spinners / commercial babus, here's another list dedicated to them:-

Yash Chopra
Aditya Chopra
Karan Johar
Rakesh Roshan
Raj Kumar Santoshi
Aamir Khan
David Dhawan

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[deleted]

Here's my list:

1. Farhan Akhtar (Dil Chahta Hai, Don, also behind Rock On)

2. Vishal Bhardwaj (Makdee, Maqbool, Omkara, Kaminey)

3. Shimit Amin (Ab Tak 56, Chak De. Absolutely underrated editor and director.)

4. Dibakar Banerjee (Khosla ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye)

5. Zoya Akhtar (Luck By Chance - a perfect little film IMO)

6. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (Rang de Basanti, Delhi 6)

7. Ashutosh Gowariker (Lagaan, Swades, Jodha Akbar - needs to brush up on the technical quality of his films. And I was annoyed by Jodha Akbar.)

8. Aamir Khan (Taare Zameen Par)

9. Maniratnam (Yuva, Guru was a disappointment)

10. Abbas Tyrewala (Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na)

Other notable directors:

1. Anurag Kashyap (Dev D - Not bad but needs to brush up on his technical quality. Also, he borders on pretentiousness. A film doesn't become cool just because it's protaganist is a drug abuser.)

2. Imtiaz Ali (Jab We Met, Love Aaj Kal - consistently decent films, unlike Nikhil Advani)

3. Sudhir Mishra (Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi - great film but not much commercial value)

4. Sriram Raghavan (Ek Hasina Thi, Johnny Gaddar)

5. Karan Johar (We have to get off our high horses and face it. He's a virtuoso in his respective genre. Also, his films are nearly flawless in technical aspects.)


Whatever happened to Ram Gopal Varma, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Shaad Ali?

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[deleted]

I think it's unfair to keep those who have been in the industry and made many movies in the same list as those who have just made their first. So here are my three lists. Feel free to make changes...

Contemporary Top(2 or more movies):

Vishal Bhardwaj
Imtiaz Ali
Ashutosh Gowariker
Dibakar Banerjee
Raj Kumar Hirani
Farhan Akhtar
Anurag Kashyap
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Madhur Bhandarkar
Nagesh Kukunoor
Aditya Chopra
Sriram Raghavan
Shimit Amin
Nishikanth Kamat
Karan Johar
Rajat Kapoor



Stalwarts(years in the industry):

Mani Ratnam
Raj kumar Santoshi
Aparna Sen
Yash Chopra
Rakesh Roshan
Sanjay Leela Bhansali



Next Gen(one movie):

Neeraj Pandey
Aamir Khan
Zoya Akhtar
Abbas Tyrewala
Raj Kumar Gupta

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Govind Nihalani anyone?
Hazaar Chaurasi ki Maa
Party
Dev
Ardha Satya
Vijeta
etc.

Though he is too old now and can be considered director of yesteryears(His last movie was Dev in 2004) He should surely deserves a mention in the list of good directors of Hindi Film Industry.

Apart from that Kabeer Kaushik is also very good director.
Sehar is a masterpiece and one day everybody shall realize that.
Though Chamku was no way near sehar it was still an ok movie.

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WOW.... you guys can come up with people like govind nihalani, zoya akhtar and few one film wonders, or maybe even karan johar and co. but no votes for RGV?
You blame his flops for it but accept sriram raghavan for jhonny gaddhar and neeraj pandey[A Wednesday was a great movie...but not coz of direction].

Not fair people......Kaminey and the other gangster films tread the path created by the maverick RGV......even films like 'luck by chance' tread his path.
For those who do not know, RGV has some brilliant[definitely the best of bollywood] GANGSTER movies.......some very good cop movies.....some realistic movies based on workings of bollywood.....some different feel comedies....and definitely the best of horror flicks from bollywood.
He has his share of terrible movies too....but even they are different in their own way. When VB can go right at the top for making 2 great movies [makdee and few such cant be counted even good]....why cant poor RGV given his share in the top 10 at the least?
ADD TO IT, he has done few brilliant regional films[telugu] like Kshanak-kshanam, Shiva, raatri, govinda govinda, money, etc.

I understand that the topic reads..' best directors in India NOW..... but it should then contain many regional ones too then. Else, if it only pertains to bollywood, it should be 'monthly ranking' type in which case RGV is surely excluded.

Give him his due....he is the BOLDEST of the lot.

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When VB can go right at the top for making 2 great movies [makdee and few such cant be counted even good]....why cant poor RGV given his share in the top 10 at the least?


I completely agree.

There are so many films mentioned in this thread that feel insipid and boring to me, that I wonder by what qualities best Indian films are defined here on this board.

But I concede, Q. Tarantino and G. Ritchie are definitely not my kind of directors. In my view directors trendy on IMDb depict predominantly violence and coolness which appeals to the male youth. For this part of the audience such films are "cool" movies. By interdependence between film producers and audience, the youth and directors adapt to ever increasing violence and lose the ability of empathy. For me the resonance that such "cool" unscrupulous corybantic films induce generates more a psycho-social degeneration than an artistic development (for example "Oldboy": it's a good film also for me but one I would prefer never to have been produced because of the message such a film transports). I personally prefer directors like D. Aronofsky and S. Sivan.

You may say that art has to be free. But in my view mankind needs empathy to work. Yet, if coolness is the preferred disposition of young people the social network frays more and more. Just read the "cool" discussions here at IMDb .

Despite my grumblings I quite liked "Maqbool" and "Omkara", and expect to relish "Kaminey".


--- each brain develops its own preferences ---

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