Anurag Basu | The Hit machine of Bollywood Cinema

Anurag Basu is an Indian Director, screenwriter, actor, and producer. He has made several hit movies like Life in A Metro, Jagga Jasoos etc. His recent work includes Ludo, which was a huge success as it beautifully showed 4 stories colliding.

Personal Life

Anurag Basu was born on 8th May 1974 in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. He was born in an upper-middle-class Bengali family. His father is Subrata Bose and his mother is Deepshika Bose. Basu’s, father was the ex-executive of Bhilai Steel Plant and also was an award-winning theatrical artist. His father had his own theatre company called Abhiyaan. He completed his schooling from education at BSP Senior Secondary School, Bhilai. He did his graduation with a B. Sc degree in Physics from the University of Mumbai. He intended to complete his FTII degree.

Basu married Tani Basu, they have two daughters named Ishana Basu & Ahana Basu.

Television Career

Anurag Basu started his career as an assistant director on television, Tara. After a few days, he himself directed all the 712 episodes. He directed television serials and daily soaps like Saturday Suspense, Ajeeb Dastaan and many more. The telefilm Koshish…Ek Aashaa became successful by Anurag Basu in early 2000. He also made pilot episodes of many television shows like ‘Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi’, ‘Kahani Ghar Ghar ki’, and Kasauti Zindagi Ki. Furthermore He directed a tv series Miit which was based on Rabindranath Tagore’s novel Noukadubi. In 2010 he hosted a Bengali reality show ‘Ke Hobe Biggest Fan’ for Zee Bangla. Recently he made a series ‘Stories by Rabindranath Tagore’.

Film Career

Basu made his debut in 2003 with the film ‘Kucch to hai’. He joined Vishesh Films, Mahesh Bhatt’s film company and directed back-to-back 3 films. Out of his three films, two films became very successful, as a result they even got well appreciated by the critics. In 2004, he was diagnosed with acute Leukaemia, as a result was hospitalised. So, directed a part of his film from the hospital.  

He made a comeback in 2010 and directed Kites which starred Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut. In 2012 Anurag made Barfi which was a huge success featuring Ranbir Kapoor, and Priyanka Chopra. It got selected for many film festivals, including Busan International Film Festival. Barfi was the third highest-grossing film of the year, and it earned 586 million rupees. In 2015, he associated with Disney Studios to make Jagga Jasoos. Jagga Jasoos starred Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif as leads. It is a comedy thriller movie and well received by kids. 

In 2020, he directed LUDO, a Netflix original, and that was a huge success. Ludo had big names in the Bollywood Industry, including Abhishek Bachchan, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, etc. The audience loved the story and the significance it had, as a result it contributed a lot to Basu’s recent career. He is currently a judge for the Reality Show “Super Dancer”. He was a part of this show from the first season. 

Achievements

He has a few nominations for a couple of his films. The Filmfare, IIFA awards, Screen Awards, and also Zee Cine Awards. The Times of India for his movies  Life in Metro, Barfi, Ludo, Murder, Gangster, and Screen Awards. He has also won the Filmfare award for Best Screen Play Award for Life in Metro.

Also Read: Anurag Kashyap | The inspiring success story of one of the best directors in Bollywood