Vishal Bharadwaj is an Indian film producer. Vishal started his career as a music composer with the film Abhay (1995) and soon established himself as an accomplished director, screenwriter, producer and playback singer. He has composed music for many of Bollywood’s hit films and has won seven National Film Awards in four categories.
Wiki/Biography
Vishal Bharadwaj was born on August 4, 1965, in a Brahmin family in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh, India (Age: 58, as of 2023). His father Ram Bharadwaj was a sugarcane inspector and his mother was a housewife. His father also wrote lyrics and poetry for Hindi films. He completed his primary education from Najibabad and later, his family moved to Meerut and Vishal started playing cricket for the state’s under-19 team. He was unable to continue his cricket career as his thumb was broken during practice. At the age of 17, he composed a song. When his father heard the song, he was impressed and discussed it with music director Usha Khanna. She used the song in the film Yaar Kasam (1985). Later, Bharadwaj moved to Delhi to pursue a degree from the Hindu College of Delhi University.
appearance
- Height: 165 cm or 5 feet 5 inches
- Hair Color: Salt and Pepper
family
Vishal Bharadwaj was born to Ram Bharadwaj and Satya Bharadwaj. He had a brother who was trying to become a film producer in Mumbai but he died of a heart attack. He married college classmate and singer Rekha Bhardwaj. They met at a college event at Delhi University. His wife is one year older than him. The couple has a son Asman.
Vishal Bharadwaj with wife and son
Profession
Earlier, he had played the organ with his ghazal singer friends. After a few years, he got a job at CBC Music in Delhi. Later, he went to Bombay to become a music composer. In 1995, he made his debut as a music composer in the film “The Fearless”. He became the music director of Gulzar’s Maachis, for which he received the Filmfare RD Burman Award for New Musical Talent. In 2000, he won the National Film Award for Best Musical Direction for the critically acclaimed film “The Godmother” (1999).
In 2002, he made his directorial debut with the horror film “Makdee”. Vishal was inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth and decided to make it into a feature film. He started working with Abbas Terewala. The film is called “Maqbool” and was released in 2003. The film is adapted from “Mumbai Underworld”. CNN-IBN listed “Maqbool” as one of the 100 greatest Hindi films of all time. In 2010, film critic Raja Sen included it in his list of the 75 best Hindi films of the decade. In 2007, he shot a 13-minute short film “Brothers of Blood”. The film follows a young man who becomes HIV-positive and has his life fall apart. In 2009, he shot Kamini, starring Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. The film was a commercial success, grossing over $10 million at the box office. Later, he was inspired by Ruskin Bond’s short story Susanna’s Seven Husbands. Vishal made a film titled “7 Khoon Maaf” on this theme, which was released in 2011. He has also directed some other movies like Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola, Rangoon, Pataakha etc. The movie “Ishqiya” stars Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi. Vishal has also produced a few other films like “Ek Thi Daayan” and Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Motion Pictures’ “Dedh Ishqiya”. In 2015, he co-produced the crime drama Talvar with Gulzar. Apart from being a music composer, he has also voiced in many films such as No Smoking, Omkara, U Me Aur Hum, Striker, Kaminey, Haider and many more.
dispute
His film Haider won 5 national awards and he dedicated all the awards to Kashmir experts. Actor and Kashmir expert Anupam Kher felt embarrassed and in a series of tweets accused Vishal Bharadwaj of making a biased film. Kher further added that Bharadwaj portrayed the Indian Army as villains and the views of Kashmir experts were not shown in the film.
Awards/Honors
- Won the Filmfare RD Burman Newcomer Award for “Maachis” (1997)
- National Film Award for Best Musical Direction, “The Godmother” (2000)
- The Blue Umbrella won the National Film Award for Best Children’s Film (2005)
- National Film Award – Special Jury Award for “Omkara” (2006)
- National Film Award for Best Music Direction “Ishqiya” (2010)
- “Haider” won Best Music Direction and Best Screenplay (2015)
- Yash Bhatti Award from the Government of Uttar Pradesh (2016)
- Won the Kerala Film Awards for Best Music Director for the film Carbon (2018)
favorite thing
- Filmmakers: Krzysztof Kieslowski (Polish film producer), Satyajit Ray, Anurag Kashyap, Anurag Basu
- Author: Shakespeare, Ruskin Bond
- Films: Kapurush, The Ten Commandments (Polish miniseries, 1989), Pulp Fiction, Ship of Theseus
net worth
As of 2018, his net worth is $70 million.
fact
- He likes to smoke and drink.
- His hobbies are watching and playing tennis and cricket, reading, traveling etc.
- Bharadwaj often collaborated with Gulzar and called him a mentor and father.
Vishal Bharadwaj and Gulzar
- His film Haider was co-written by journalist and author Bhasharat Peer, an eyewitness to the Kashmir conflict.
- He liked the filmmaking style of Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, whose film The Ten Commandments inspired him to become a filmmaker.
- Actor Naseeruddin Shah once said of his film: “I didn’t want to do this film. But I like Vishal’s films. I think he makes interesting films, even though I don’t like all of his work. But even his bad work is more interesting than a lot of people’s so-called good work. That’s why I consider him a friend.”
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education