Sanjay Leela Bhansali is an Indian film director born 24th February, 1963. He is an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India. Bhansali has adopted the middle name "Leela" as a tribute to his mother, Leela Bhansali. His mother tongue is Gujarati.

Career

Bhansali began his career as an assistant to Vidhu Vinod Chopra and was involved in the making of Parinda, 1942: A Love Story and Kareeb. However, both had a fall out when Bhansali refused to direct Kareeb and made his directorial debut with Khamoshi: The Musical, the commercially unsuccessful but critically acclaimed narration of a daughter's struggle to communicate with her deaf mute parents. His second film was a triangular love story, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, which established his individualistic stamp for visual splendour and creating auras of celebration and festivity. The film was a great success and won numerous awards.His next film Devdas was Bhansali's ode to the well known novel of the same name. Upon its theatrical release in India, the film surfaced as the highest grossing movie.It also won major Bollywood awards and was Indian submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The musical received a significant reception at Cannes, where it premiered. Then came Black, which Time Magazine (Europe) selected as fifth of the 10 Best Movies of the Year 2005 from across the globe. Black broke a record at the 2006 Filmfare Awards, winning eleven awards. After having four successes, Bhansali experienced his first major flop in Saawariya, which was met with sharp criticisms and simultaneously poor collections at the box office.In 2010 Bhansali released Guzaarish starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. He also made his debut in music direction for this film.In 2012, Bhansali produced Rowdy Rathore a remake of the Telugu film Vikramarkudu, starring Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha; and directed by Prabhu Deva.His future project is titled Chenab Gandhi directed by Vibhu Puri and written by Bhavani Iyer, who also wrote for Black; starring Amitabh Bachchan, Rajeev Khandelwal and Vidya Balan. The film centers around Indian freedom fighter, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as Frontier Gandhi.

Award
National Film Awards

    2003: National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment - Devdas
    2006: National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi - Black

Filmfare Awards

    1997: Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie - Khamoshi: The Musical
    2000: Filmfare Best Director Award - Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
    2000: Filmfare Best Movie Award - Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
    2003: Filmfare Best Director Award - Devdas
    2003: Filmfare Best Movie Award - Devdas
    2006: Filmfare Best Director Award - Black
    2006: Filmfare Best Movie Award - Black
    2006: Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie - Black
    2003: Filmfare Award for best Dialogue - Devdas

Nominated -

    2011: Filmfare Best Director Award - Guzaarish