Sriram Raghavan
Sriram Raghavan (born 22 June 1963) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema.[1] Known for making some of the most path-breaking and successful thrillers, he is notable for producing a 45-minute docufiction on Indian serial killer Raman Raghav and 2004 Hindi feature film Ek Hasina Thi produced by Ram Gopal Varma. His second feature film was 2007’s Johnny Gaddaar.[2] His latest film Andhadhun (2018) which won him the Filmfare Award for Best Film (Critics), received positive reviews and was commercially successful and is considered one of the most successful films of 2018.[3] He is presently a member of the advisory board of the Kautik International Student Film Festival.[4]
Raghavan was born in Bombay (Mumbai), Maharashtra in a Tamil family to a botanist father and a movie-loving mother. He grew up in Pune, where he did his schooling at the St. Vincent’s High School. He also studied economics at Fergusson College in Pune.
He is a graduate of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.[5] Rajkumar Hirani, one of his batch-mates, edited his diploma film, The Eight Column Affair, which went on win the National Film Award in 1987.[1] He is the brother of Sridhar Raghavan, a writer known for the television series C.I.D. and the 2019 action thriller War.[6]
Raghavan started his career before joining the FTII for Stardust, but left since he wasn’t interested in it. Post his FTII studies, he made a documentary Raman Raghav, with Raghuvir Yadav. Later he worked as a writer for television soaps, writing many episodes of CID and Aahat, and also directed one episode of the Star bestseller called ‘First Kill’ Later, he met Ram Gopal Varma, who liked his work in Raman Raghav, and signed him up for the film Ek Hasina Thi, a dark thriller starring Saif Ali Khan and Urmila Matondkar.[7]
Raghavan later went on to direct another thriller, Johnny Gaddaar, which marked the debut of Neil Nitin Mukesh. The film garnered an overwhelming response from the critics, though it didn’t fare well at the box office; it has since been considered a cult classic.[8] His third film, Agent Vinod a spy thriller, starring Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, was produced by Khan himself.
Raghavan then directed a crime thriller named Badlapur starring Varun Dhawan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Huma Qureshi, Yami Gautam which was released on 20 February 2015. He is also signed for making a film based on a book by Vikas Swarup.[9] His latest film is Andhadhun, starring Ayushmann Khurana, Tabu, and Radhika Apte, which released on 5 October 2018 to critical acclaim.[10] For the second time, he would be seen directing Varun Dhawan in a biopic on Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, who was martyred during Indo-Pak war in 1971.[11]
