Vikas Bahl

Indian filmmaker

Vikas Bahl

Bahl in 2014

Born| 1971 (age 53–54)

New Delhi, India

Occupations|

* Film director
* Film producer
* screenwriter

Years active| 2005–present
Spouse| Richa Dubey (divorced)

Vikas Bahl is an Indian filmmaker, best known for directing Chillar Party (2011), Queen (2013), Super 30 (2019), and Shaitaan (2024).[1]

## Early life and education

[edit]

Bahl was born and brought up in Lajpat Nagar in Delhi, his father worked with the Indian Oil Corporation. After his schooling from Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and graduation from Ramjas College, Delhi, he moved to Mumbai to pursue an MBA degree from SVKM's NMIMS.[2]

## Career

[edit]

Bahl started his career with advertising, working for several years in client servicing, before joining UTV Spotboy. In 2011, he started Phantom Films, along with Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane and Madhu Mantena. Over the years as a director he has worked with film directors such as Vishal Bhardwaj, Anurag Kashyap, Rajkumar Gupta and Vikramaditya Motwane.[3]

In 2011, Bahl made his directorial debut under UTV Spotboy alongside co-director Nitesh Tiwari with Chillar Party and won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay, with Vijay Maurya. The film also garnered the National Film Award for Best Children's Film.[4] In 2014, he launched his independent directorial venture Queen, starring Kangana Ranaut, which received critical and popular acclaim.[2][5]

Bahl's 2015 film Shaandar, a destination wedding film, was a flop and received neutral to negative responses.[5][6] In October 2014, he directed a short film Going Home, featuring Alia Bhatt, on women's safety, which went viral on social media.[7][8][9] Bahl next directed a biopic on mathematician and IIT-JEE coach Anand Kumar called Super 30,[10] which featured Hrithik Roshan as Kumar.[11][12]

Bahl then directed Tiger Shroff starrer Ganapath (2023), which he co-produced with Pooja Entertainment.[13] It was released on 20 October 2023 to highly negative reviews. Bahl’s direction was also received mixed to negative remarks. Bollywood Hungama in their review wrote "Vikas Bahl's screenplay is unexciting and direction is not up to the mark. To give credit its due, he has handled a few dramatic moments well."[14] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave 1.5/5 stars and wrote "Ganapath is painfully pea-brained pulp that makes a meal of a terribly thin storyline."[15] Bhavna Agarwal of India Today gave 1.5/5 stars and wrote "'Ganapath' offers absolutely no respite. If you expect it to get better in the second half as Gen Z are often heard saying ‘you are in delulu’."[16] Hiren Kotwani of Mid-Day gave 1.5/5 stars and wrote "What makes Ganapath different from the saviour-hero films of yore is that director Bahl has tried to make it look like the desi Mad Max of sorts, albeit with unimpressive design and poor packaging".[17]

## Sexual harassment allegations

[edit]

See also: MeToo movement in India

In October 2018, in an interview with Huffington Post India, a former employee of Phantom Films accused Bahl of sexually harassing her on the set of the 2014 film Queen.[18] Later, the film's lead actress Kangana Ranaut, in support of the former employee, also accused Bahl of sexual misconduct.[19][20] Following this, Nayani Dixit, Ranaut's co-star in the movie, leveled similar accusations against Bahl.[21] As a result, Phantom Films announced its dissolution on 5 October 2018,[22] largely in response to the sexual assault allegation against Bahl by another former Phantom employee, which was reported in 2015.[23] The other three founders, Kashyap, Motwane, and Mantena, all issued statements on Twitter confirming the company's disbanding and moving on to independent projects.[24] After, Phantom Film subsequently disbanded, and founders Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane made formal statements against Bahl and his sexual misdemeanors. Bahl, in turn, sent them legal notices, citing defamation of character.[25]

## Filmography

[edit]

### Films

[edit]

Year  | Title  | Functioned as  | Notes

|
|
|

Director  | Producer  | Writer
2008 | Aamir | No | Yes | No |
Welcome to Sajjanpur | No | Yes | No |
2009 | Dev.D | No | Associate | No |
Ex Terminators | No | Associate | No |
2010 | Udaan | No | Associate | No |
2011 | No One Killed Jessica | No | Creative | No |
Thank You | No | Creative | No |
Chillar Party | Yes | No | Yes | Co-directed with Nitesh Tiwari; also lyricist for song "Liar Liar"
2013 | Lootera | No | Yes | No |
Hasee Toh Phasee | No | Yes | No |
2014 | Queen | Yes | No | Yes |
Ugly | No | Yes | No |
Going Home | Yes | No | Yes | Short film[26]
2015 | NH10 | No | Yes | No |
Hunterrr | No | Yes | No |
Masaan | No | Yes | No |
Shaandaar | Yes | No | Yes |
2016 | Raman Raghav 2.0 | No | Yes | No |
Wrong Side Raju | No | Yes | No | Gujarati film
Udta Punjab | No | Yes | No |
2017  | Trapped | No | Yes | No |
2018 | Mukkabaaz | No | Yes | No |
High Jack | No | Yes | No |
Manmarziyaan | No | Yes | No |
2019 | Super 30 | Yes | No | No |
2020 | Ghoomketu | No | Yes | No |
2022 | Goodbye | Yes | Yes | Yes |
2023 | Ganapath | Yes | Yes | Yes |
2024 | Shaitaan | Yes | Yes | No |
2025 | Dil Ka Darwaaza Khol Na Darling † | Yes | No | No  | Post-production[27]

### Television

[edit]

Year  | Title  | Functioned as  | Notes

|
|
|

Director  | Producer  | Writer  | Creator
2021–present  | Sunflower | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Co-directed season 1 with Rahul Sengupta
2022  | Good Bad Girl | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  |

## Awards and nominations

[edit]

Award | Year | Category | Nominated work | Result

|
|
|
|

BIG Star Entertainment Awards | 2014  | Most Entertaining Film Director | Queen | Won
Bollywood Hungama Surfers' Choice Movie Awards | 2015  | Best Director  | Queen | Nominated
Filmfare Awards | 2015 | Best Director | Queen | Won
Best Screenplay | Nominated[a]
2017 | Best Film | Udta Punjab | Nominated
Ghanta Awards | 2016  | Worst Director  | Shaandaar | Won
IBNLive Movie Awards | 2015  | Best Director  | Queen | Won
IIFA Awards | 2015 | Best Director | Queen | Nominated
Best Screenplay | Won[a]
Best Story | Won
2017 | Best Film | Udta Punjab | Nominated
National Film Awards | 2011 | Best Screenplay | Chillar Party | Won[b]
Best Children's Film | Won
2014 | Best Features Film in Hindi | Queen | Won
Screen Awards | 2015  | Best Director | Queen | Won
Best Screenplay | Nominated[a]
2017  | Best Film | Udta Punjab | Nominated
Stardust Awards | 2014  | Best Director | Queen | Won
Star Guild Awards | 2015  | Best Director | Queen | Won
Best Story | Won
Best Screenplay  | Won[a]

1. ^ a b c d Shared with Chaitally Parmar and Parveez Sheikh
2. ^ Shared with Nitesh Tiwari and Vijay Maurya

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Bollywood loves Vikas Bahl’s Queen - The Times of India
2. ^ a b Gupta, Priya (28 February 2014). "Politics excites me as much as movies do: Vikas Bahl". Times of India. Retrieved 12 March 2014.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
3. ^ "Vikas Bahl's Queen is about a naïve Delhi girl". The Times of India. 27 February 2014. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
4. ^ "59th National Film Awards for the Year 2011 Announced". Press Information Bureau (PIB), India. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
5. ^ a b "Wouldn't have made the film had Kangana not agreed: Vikas Bahl". The Times of India. 21 March 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
6. ^ Ankur Pathak (21 March 2014). "Queen and I". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
7. ^ "Going Home: Vikas Bahl visualises a utopia for women with Alia Bhatt". India Today. 18 October 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
8. ^ "Watch: Alia Bhatt's spine-chilling short film with Vikas Bahl". Deccan Chronicle. 22 October 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
9. ^ "Alia Bhatt shows Utopian world in short film 'Going Home'". The Indian Express. 22 October 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
10. ^ "Soon, a biopic on Super 30 founder Anand Kumar". Hindustan Times. 10 May 2016.
11. ^ "Confirmed! Hrithik Roshan to play math genius Anand Kumar in Super 30". hindustantimes.com/. 25 September 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
12. ^ "Hrithik Roshan's Super 30 gets a new release date". The Indian Express. 25 January 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
13. ^ "Tiger Shroff announces his next action franchise Ganapath; Vikas Bahl to helm first instalment". firstpost.com. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
14. ^ "GANAPATH – A HERO IS BORN Movie Review". Bollywood Hungama. 27 October 2023. Archived from the original on 28 December 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
15. ^ "Ganapath Review: Tiger Shroff Bulldozes His Way Through The Rubble". NDTV.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
16. ^ "'Ganapath' Movie Review: Tiger, Kriti's 'Mad Max'-inspired world deserved better". India Today. Archived from the original on 20 October 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
17. ^ "'Ganapath: A Hero Is Born' movie review – Sad Max, anyone?". Mid-day. 21 October 2023. Archived from the original on 21 October 2023. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
18. ^ "'Queen' Director Vikas Bahl Sexually Assaulted Me, Phantom Films Did Nothing: Survivor Speaks Out". HuffPost India. 6 October 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
19. ^ "Vikas Bahl Would Hold me Tight, Smell My Hair, Says Kangana After Woman Accuses Him of Molestation". News18. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
20. ^ "Kangana Ranaut Accuses Vikas Bahl Of Harassment: Is #MeToo Gaining Pace In India?". headlinestoday.org. 7 October 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
21. ^ "Kangana Ranaut's Queen Co-Star Nayani Dixit Accuses Vikas Bahl Of Sexual Misconduct". headlinestoday.org. Headlines Today. 8 October 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
22. ^ Shaikh, Samina (6 October 2018). "EXCLUSIVE! Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Vikas Bahl and Madhu Mantena dissolve their production company". The Times of India. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
23. ^ Pathak, Ankur (6 October 2018). "'Queen' Director Vikas Bahl Sexually Assaulted Me, Phantom Films Did Nothing: Survivor Speaks Out". HuffPost. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
24. ^ "Phantom Films Dissolved; Anurag Kashyap Says, 'All Dreams Come To An End'!". Filmibeat.com. 6 October 2018. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
25. ^ "Vikas Bahl accuses Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane of defaming him in legal notice". Hindustan Times. 10 October 2018. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
26. ^ Nithya Nair (20 October 2014). "Alia Bhatt's short film 'Going Home' is captivating". India.
27. ^ Lubna Khan (14 November 2024). "Jaya Bachchan, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Wamiqa Gabbi Begin Shooting For Dil Ka Darwaaza Khol Na Darling In Goa". News18.

## External links

[edit]

* Vikas Bahl at IMDb
* Vikas Bahl at Bollywood Hungama

* v
* t
* e

National Film Award for Best Screenplay

1967–1980|

* S. L. Puram Sadanandan (1967)
* Pandit Anand Kumar (1968)
* Puttanna Kanagal (1969)
* Satyajit Ray (1970)
* Tapan Sinha (1971)
* Gulzar (1972)
* Mrinal Sen and Ashish Burman (1973)
* Satyajit Ray (1974)
* No Award (1975)
* Vijay Tendulkar (1976)
* Satyadev Dubey, Shyam Benegal, Girish Karnad (1977)
* T. S. Ranga and T. S. Nagabharana (1978)
* Sai Paranjpye (1979)
* Mrinal Sen (1980)

1981–2000|

* K. Balachander (1981)
* Mrinal Sen (1982)
* G. V. Iyer (1983)
* Adoor Gopalakrishnan (1984)
* Bhabendra Nath Saikia (1985)
* Budhdhadeb Dasgupta (1986)
* Adoor Gopalakrishnan (1987)
* Arundhati Roy (1988)
* M. T. Vasudevan Nair (1989)
* K. S. Sethumadhavan (1990)
* M. T. Vasudevan Nair (1991)
* M. T. Vasudevan Nair (1992)
* Satyajit Ray (1993)
* M. T. Vasudevan Nair (1994)
* Saeed Akhtar Mirza and Ashok Mishra (1995)
* Agathiyan (1996)
* Rituparno Ghosh (1997)
* Ashok Mishra (1998)
* Madampu Kunjukuttan (1999)
* Bharathiraja (2000)

2001–2020|

* Neelakanta (2001)
* Aparna Sen (2002)
* Goutam Ghose (2003)
* Manoj Tyagi and Nina Arora (2004)
* Prakash Jha, Manoj Tyagi and Shridhar Raghavan (2005)
* Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra (2006)
* Feroz Abbas Khan (2007)
* Sachin Kundalkar (2008)

Original|

* P. F. Mathews and Harikrishna (2009)
* Vetrimaaran (2010)
* Nitesh Tiwari, Vikas Bahl, and Vijay Maurya (2011)
* Sujoy Ghosh (2012)
* P. Sheshadri (2013)
* Srijit Mukherji (2014)
* Juhi Chaturvedi and Himanshu Sharma (2015)
* Syam Pushkaran (2016)
* Sajeev Pazhoor (2017)
* Rahul Ravindran (2018)
* Kaushik Ganguly (2019)
* Sudha Kongara and Shalini Usha Nair (2020)

Adapted|

* Gopal Krishan Pai and Girish Kasaravalli (2009)
* Anant Mahadevan and Sanjay Pawar (2010)
* Avinash Deshpande Nigdi (2011)
* Bhavesh Mandalia and Umesh Shukla (2012)
* Panchakshari (2013)
* Joshy Mangalath (2014)
* Vishal Bhardwaj (2015)
* Sanjay Krishnaji Patil (2016)
* Jayaraj (2017)
* Sriram Raghavan , Arijit Biswas, Yogesh Chandekar, Hemanth M. Rao and Pooja Ladha Surti (2018)
* Srijit Mukherji (2019)
* – (2020)

Dialogue|

* Pandiraj (2009)
* Sanjay Pawar (2010)
* Girish Kulkarni (2011)
* Anjali Menon (2012)
* Sumitra Bhave (2013)
* Vishal Bhardwaj (2014)
* Juhi Chaturvedi and Himanshu Sharma (2015)
* Tharun Bhascker (2016)
* Sambit Mohanty (2017)
* Churni Ganguly (2018)
* Srijit Mukherji (2019)
* Madonne Ashwin (2020)

2021–present|

| Original|

* Shahi Kabir (2021)
* Anand Ekarshi (2022)

|

Adapted|

* Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Utkarshini Vashishtha (2021)
* – (2022)

Dialogue|

* Utkarshini Vashishtha and Prakash Kapadia (2021)
* Arpita Mukherjee and Rahul V. Chittella (2022)

* v
* t
* e

Filmfare Award for Best Director

1954–1970|

* Bimal Roy (1954)
* Bimal Roy (1955)
* Bimal Roy (1956)
* V. Shantaram (1957)
* Mehboob Khan (1958)
* Bimal Roy (1959)
* Bimal Roy (1960)
* Bimal Roy (1961)
* B. R. Chopra (1962)
* Abrar Alvi (1963)
* Bimal Roy (1964)
* Raj Kapoor (1965)
* Yash Chopra (1966)
* Vijay Anand (1967)
* Manoj Kumar (1968)
* Ramanand Sagar (1969)
* Yash Chopra (1970)

1971–1990|

* Asit Sen (1971)
* Raj Kapoor (1972)
* Sohanlal Kanwar (1973)
* Yash Chopra (1974)
* Manoj Kumar (1975)
* Yash Chopra (1976)
* Gulzar (1977)
* Basu Chatterjee (1978)
* Satyajit Ray (1979)
* Shyam Benegal (1980)
* Govind Nihalani (1981)
* Muzaffar Ali (1982)
* Raj Kapoor (1983)
* Govind Nihalani (1984)
* Sai Paranjpye (1985)
* Raj Kapoor (1986)
* Mansoor Khan (1989)
* Vidhu Vinod Chopra (1990)

1991–2010|

* Rajkumar Santoshi (1991)
* Subhash Ghai (1992)
* Mukul S. Anand (1993)
* Shekhar Kapur (1994)
* Sooraj Barjatya (1995)
* Aditya Chopra (1996)
* Rajkumar Santoshi (1997)
* J. P. Dutta (1998)
* Karan Johar (1999)
* Sanjay Leela Bhansali (2000)
* Rakesh Roshan (2001)
* Ashutosh Gowariker (2002)
* Sanjay Leela Bhansali (2003)
* Rakesh Roshan (2004)
* Kunal Kohli (2005)
* Sanjay Leela Bhansali (2006)
* Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (2007)
* Aamir Khan (2008)
* Ashutosh Gowariker (2009)
* Rajkumar Hirani (2010)

2011-present|

* Karan Johar (2011)
* Zoya Akhtar (2012)
* Sujoy Ghosh (2013)
* Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (2014)
* Vikas Bahl (2015)
* Sanjay Leela Bhansali (2016)
* Nitesh Tiwari (2017)
* Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari (2018)
* Meghna Gulzar (2019)
* Zoya Akhtar (2020)
* Om Raut (2021)
* Vishnuvardhan (2022)
* Sanjay Leela Bhansali (2023)
* Vidhu Vinod Chopra (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Screen Award for Best Director

* Sooraj Barjatya (1995)
* Aditya Chopra (1996)
* Dharmesh Darshan (1997)
* J. P. Dutta (1998)
* Karan Johar (1999)
* Sanjay Leela Bhansali (2000)
* Rakesh Roshan (2001)
* Ashutosh Gowariker (2002)
* Sanjay Leela Bhansali (2003)
* Rakesh Roshan (2004)
* Kunal Kohli (2005)
* Sanjay Leela Bhansali (2006)
* Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (2007)
* Aamir Khan & Shimit Amin (2008)
* Ashutosh Gowariker & Neeraj Pandey (2009)
* Rajkumar Hirani (2010)
* Vikramaditya Motwane (2011)
* Milan Luthria (2012)
* Anurag Basu (2013)
* Shoojit Sircar (2014)
* Vikas Bahl (2015)
* Kabir Khan (2016)
* Ram Madhvani (2017)
* Nitesh Tiwari (2018)
* Sriram Raghavan (2019)
* Zoya Akhtar (2020)

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