Srijit Mukherji

Srijit Mukherji
Mukherji at screening of Begum Jaan
Born	(1977-09-23) 23 September 1977 (age 47) Kolkata
Nationality	Indian
Occupations	Film director Screenwriter Actor Lyricist
Years active	2010–present
Spouse	Rafiath Rashid Mithila ​ ​ (m. 2019)​
Relatives	Arati Mukhopadhyay (Aunt)

Srijit Mukherji (born 23 September 1977) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Bengali cinema. His regular collaboration with veteran actor Prosenjit Chatterjee brought him into the limelight. His first feature film Autograph (2010), was a critical and commercial success, where he had written the script with Chatterjee in mind. His fifth film, Jaatishwar, won four national awards at India's 61st National Film Awards (2014). He won the National Film Award for Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay for his sixth film, Chotushkone, at India's 62nd National Film Awards.^[1] His eighth film, Rajkahini had been remade into a Hindi film titled, Begum Jaan, starring Vidya Balan in 2017. His 2018 release Ek Je Chhilo Raja won the 'Best Bengali Film' Award at India's 66th National Film Awards. His 2019 film Gumnaami won him the Best Bengali Film and Best Adapted Screenplay Awards at the 67th National Film Awards.^[2]

He is born and brought up in bhawanipore in kolkata and mukherji completed his schooling till 10th standard from Dolna Day School, Kolkata^[3] and 12th from South Point School, Kolkata,^[4] before studying BA economics at Presidency College, Kolkata. He went on to complete his MA and MPhil in environmental economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University,^[5] parallelly working as a social scientist in the Urban Transport and Pollution Sector with TERI in New Delhi. He quit his Ph.D. while in his first year, to join IRI Symphony, Bangalore as an econometrician and business analyst. After working in Bangalore and a brief stint in Delhi, he quit his job to actively pursue theatre and films.^[6]

Even while working as an economist and statistician, he was actively involved with the English professional theatre circuit in Delhi and Bangalore. He has acted in Madness, adapted from Paulo Coelho's Veronica Decides To Die; Manoj Mitra's The Orchard of Banchharam; Badal Sircar's The Other Side of History; Sunil Ganguly's Pratidwandi – The Adversary, adapted for the stage from Satyajit Ray's film of the same name and Lucknow 76. He wrote and directed Mindgame, an Indian adaptation of Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men, at the Alliance Francaise De Bangalore in 2006. In April 2008, he formed his own troupe, Pandora's Act, whose first production, Feluda Pherot! at Rangashankara in July 2008 was a runaway success and was the first ever non-canonical dramatisation of Satyajit Ray's sleuth Feluda.^[5] Barun Chanda, Ray's leading man in Seemabodhho, and Parambrata Chatterjee, the screen Topshe and film youth icon, starred in this production. In 2009, he wrote, directed and acted in the English play Checkmate, a non-canonical re-interpretation of Byomkesh Bakshi, Saradindu Bandopadhyay's sleuth.^[7] He was an assistant director, lyricist and actor in both Anjan Dutt's Madly Bangalee and Aparna Sen's Iti Mrinalini, in 2009.^[8] He has also written lyrics for films like Cross Connection, Le Chakka and Josh, TV serials like Coffee and More and Dadagiri and non-film albums of Usha Uthup.

In 2010 Mukherji directed his debut feature film, the award-winning blockbuster – Autograph (starring Prosenjit Chatterjee, Indraneil Sengupta and Nandana Sen) which was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. The film won 41 awards and was an official selection at Abu Dhabi International Film Festival 2010, MIAAC Film Festival in New York 2010, Glasgow International Film Festival 2011 and London Indian Film Festival 2011.^[9]

In the same year he also made his acting debut on Bengali television in the Rituparno Ghosh scripted mega serial Gaaner Opare, produced by Ideas Entertainment.^[10]

His work in 2011 included a major role in Anindya Banerjee's Chaplin starring Rudranil Ghosh and his second film, Baishe Srabon starring Prosenjit Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, Raima Sen, Abir Chatterjee and Gautam Ghose, who returned to acting after a hiatus of 29 years. Baishe Srabon was recently the official selection at the Dubai International Film Festival and the closing film at the London Indian Film Festival, and had a 105-day run at the box office making it the biggest blockbuster of the year. Baishe Srabon has won 41 awards. His third feature film was Hemlock Society, a romantic satire set at the backdrop of a school which teaches aspirants how to successfully commit suicide. It featured Parambrata Chatterjee and Koel Mallick and won 21 awards.

Mukherji's fourth film, Mishawr Rawhoshyo, based on Kakababu with Prasenjit Chattopadhyay playing the lead character and Indraneil Sengupta playing the role of Hani Alkadi, has been declared as one of the biggest blockbusters ever and the highest earning urban mainstream film. He has acted in films like Dutta Vs Dutta, Bapi Bari Jaa and the national award-winning Shobdo. His fifth film Jaatishwar, featuring Prosenjit Chatterjee and Jisshu Sengupta, is generally considered to be the best in his career and most critically acclaimed. It is the musical bridge between two centuries of Bengali culture and a biopic cum a musical cum a reincarnation drama. At the 61st National Awards 2014, the highest film honour in India, it won 4 national awards for Music Direction, Playback Singing, Costume and Make up. This was the highest tally for a film in India this year, and the second highest ever for a Bengali film. It also swept the Mirchi Music Awards in 2015 winning 7 awards. The following year at the 62nd National Awards 2015, Chotushkone won him the Best Director and Best Original Screenplay awards, along with winning the Best Cinematography.

He also received the Young Achiever Award from Rotary International, the prestigious Shera Bangali Award from ABP Anando and the Shoilojanando Mukhopadhyay Memorial Award in 2012 for his contribution in the field of film direction. In 2013 he received the Uttam Kumar Memorial Award from the Government of West Bengal becoming the youngest director to achieve this. He has also received the oldest film award in India, the BFJA award, for remarkable contribution to Bengali Cinema in the last few years.^[11]

Mukherji has made his directorial debut in Bollywood with the film Begum Jaan which is a remake of his earlier Bengali film Rajkahini. Vidya Balan plays the lead role of a brothel's madam during the partition of India in 1947.^[12][13] He had two releases in 2018, Uma and Ek Je Chhilo Raja. Both featured Jisshu Sengupta and were box office superhits. The former went to 10 film festivals around the world and won 6 awards while the latter won 23 awards and went to 7 film festivals around the world including Palm Springs International Film Festival. In 2018, it was reported that Mukherji will be directing a Junglee Pictures produced yet to be titled web-series in Hindi, based on the novel of noted novelist and blogger Arnab Ray, The Mahabharata Murders. This will be his first foray into web-series direction.^[14] In 2019, he has three releases Shahjahan Regency, Vinci Da and Gumnaami, the last two being both critical and commercial successes along with being a festival favourite. Gumnaami won the Best Bengali Feature Film and Best Adapted Screenplay Awards at the 67th National Film Awards.

He has also completed another web-series, Feluda Pherot, which is based on two Feluda stories written by Satyajit Ray, Chhinomostar Obhishaap and Darjeeling Jomjomat.^{[clarification needed][15]}

After no films in 2020 due to COVID-19, in 2021 he had 4 releases, out of which 2 were Hindi films. He directed Kakababur Protyaborton, which was based on the third film of the Kakababu franchise, it had Prosenjit Chatterjee as Kakababu, Aryann Bhowmik, Anirban Chakrabarti in the lead roles. His next release wass X=Prem. A black and white romance drama film with debutant actors, the film earned critical praise and received several awards and nominations at the 6th Filmfare Awards Bangla^[16] and 6th WBFJA Awards.

His next projects that year were two Bollywood films: Sherdil: The Pilibhit Saga and Shabaash Mithu. The latter was the biography of one of the most influential Indian female cricketer Mithali Raj.^[17]

In 2023, he released Dawshom Awbotaar, a neo-noir crime thriller as the 4th installment Srijit Mukherji's Cop Universe. It served as the prequel crossover of his previous films Baishe Srabon and Vinci Da. It became a huge box office success emerged as one of the highest grossing Bengali films of 2023.^[18] The film received multiple nomination and awards at the Filmfare Awards Bangla and WBFJA Awards.^[19]

His first release in 2024 was the fantasy romantic comedy film Oti Uttam. For the first time ever in Indian Cinema, veteran actor Uttam Kumar appeared in the movie through Visual effects by using his scenes from his 56 existing old movies.^[20] His next release this year was a biopic on the life of Mrinal Sen. Titled Padatik, it chronicles his active time and contributions to Bengali cinema.^[21] His next thriller film titled Tekka starring Dev and Rukmini Maitra released on the occasion Durga Puja 2024 and earned an 'organic blockbuster' tag.^[22] His upcoming venture is Feludar Goyendagiri (Season 2) which is scheduled to release on the occasion of Christmas 2024, digitally. Also, post-production of his next film Shotyi Boley Shotyi Kichhu Nei is currently undergoing and is scheduled for a January 2025 release.

Also as an Actor(Cameo Roles) in all the films he directed

International Awards

Best Director for Ek Je Chhilo Raja at 20th Rainbow Film Festival, London (2018)

Best Story for Vinci Da at 21st Rainbow Film Festival, London (2019)

Best Film for Ek Je Chhilo Raja at 17th Dhaka International Film Festival (2019)

Best Screenplay for Padatik at the 24th New York Indian Film Festival (2024)

Best Director for Baishe Srabon at International Bangla Film Academy Awards (2011)

Best Screenplay for Baishe Srabon at International Bangla Film Academy Awards (2011)

National Awards (Govt. of India)

Best Director for Chotushkone at the 62nd National Awards (2014)

Best Original Screenplay for Chotushkone at the 62nd National Awards (2014)

Best Adapted Screenplay for Gumnaami at the 67th National Awards (2019)

Best Director (Bengali) for Ek Je Chhilo Raja at the 66th National Awards (2018)

Best Director (Bengali) for Gumnaami at the 67th National Awards (2019)

Filmfare Awards

Best Story for Vinci Da (2019)

Best Film for Vinci Da (2019)

Best Screenplay for Dwitiyo Purush (2020)

State Awards (Govt. Of West Bengal)

Best Film for Autograph at the 10th Telecine Awards (2010)

Best Director for Autograph at the 10th Telecine Awards (2010)

Best Director for Baishe Srabon at the 11th Telecine Awards (2011)

Best Director for Chotushkone at the 14th Telecine Awards (2014)

Best Film for Vinci Da at the 18th Telecine Awards (2019)

Best Director (Critics) for Vinci Da at the 18th Telecine Awards (2019)

Best Film for Gumnaami at the 19th Telecine Awards (2019)

Best Director (Critics) for Gumnaami at the 19th Telecine Awards (2019)

WBFJA Awards (Oldest Film Awards in India)

Best Director for Ek Je Chhilo Raja (2018)

Best Lyricist for Ahare Mon (2018)

Best Screenplay for Dwitiyo Purush (2020)

Mukherji was in a relationship with actress Swastika Mukherjee; they broke up after filming Jaatishwar in 2014.^[24] Later he dated Ritabhari Chakraborty around 2017 for a brief period.^[25] Media reports speculated a romantic affair between him and actress Jaya Ahsan during the filming of Bishorjan (2017).^[26] Mukherji did not address the rumours directly, but described their relationship being "much more than love".^[27][28]

On 6 December 2019, Mukherji married actress Rafiath Rashid Mithila.^[29][30]

• Srijit Mukherji at IMDb