Madhur Bhandarkar Age, Wife, Children, Biography & More

Bio
Real Name	Madhur Bhandarkar
Profession	Director, Producer, Script Writer
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)	in centimeters- 175 cm in meters- 1.75 m in Feet Inches- 5’ 9”
Weight (approx.)	in Kilograms- 74 kg in Pounds- 163 lbs
Body Measurements (approx.)	- Chest: 41 Inches - Waist: 33 Inches - Biceps: 13 Inches
Eye Colour	Dark Brown
Hair Colour	Brown
Personal Life
Date of Birth	26 August 1968 (Monday)
Age (as of 2024)	56 Years
Birth Place	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Zodiac sign	Virgo
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	Mumbai, Maharashtra
School	Not Known
College	N/A
Educational Qualifications	School Dropout
Debut	Direction: Trishakti (1999)
Awards/Achievements	• His film, 'Chandni Bar' (2001), bagged the National Award for Best Film on 'Other Social Issues'. • 'Traffic Signal' (2007) fetched him the National Award for Best Director. • 'Page 3' (2005) was awarded the National Award for Best Feature Film. • He was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award, by the Government of India in 2016.
Family	Father- Name Not Known (Electrical Contractor) Mother- Shanta Bhandarkar Brother- Not Known Sister- Not Known
Religion	Hinduism
Address	410, Crystal Paradise, The Mall, Andheri West, Mumbai - 400053
Hobbies	Reading
Controversies	• In the year 2004, Preeti Jain, a model looking for opportunities in the Bollywood film industry, filed a police complaint against filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, wherein she alleged that the director raped her 16 times in five years, on the pretext of offering a major role in one of his movies. The court, however, could not find any evidence and the 'victim' had to withdraw her case. Nevertheless, the case made headlines again in 2017 when Preeti Jain was sentenced to 3 years in prison for plotting to kill the filmmaker with the aid of a professional contract killer. • During the release of Fashion (2008), actress Kangana Ranaut blurted out in an interview that the film was more-or-less based on the life of Geetanjali Nagpal, a former supermodel who was found begging on the streets of Delhi. This statement invited some trouble for the filmmaker as the Delhi Commission for Women, a government body which promotes the interests and welfare of women and which rescued the former model, tried to stop the release of the movie, citing that the former supermodel was "too vulnerable for her life to be exposed by the movies". • Bhandarkar's movie- Jail (2009), which starred actor Neil Nitin Mukesh in the lead role, had to face a lot of trouble during its release. The film was criticized for showcasing male nudity on screen. • Reportedly, Madhur Bhandarkar had an ugly spat with actress Aishwarya Rai when he was about to begin the shoot of his film- Heroine (2012). Sources suggest that Aishwarya Rai, who was the first choice to play the lead in the movie, signed the film without revealing the news of her pregnancy to the filmmaker. Naturally, Aishwarya Rai couldn't continue with the shoot and had to abandon it mid-way. A disappointed Bhandarkar was just about to shelve the movie before Kareena Kapoor nodded for the role. • In early 2013, a fake SMS by his name started to circulate amongst aspiring actors. The message stated that Bhandarkar was looking for around 100 girls for a movie, who would be paid INR 8000 every day for a shoot expected to last for 20 days. The text did not end there and asked the applicants to send in their pictures at a fake email address. However, vigilant Cyber Crime Cell came to the rescue and took things under control. • Actress-turned-author Seema Seth once sued Bhandarkar for INR 2.5 crore alleging that the filmmaker had copied the story of his film, Fashion (2008), through her book titled El-Dorado. The author, however, failed to appear in the court on every date, thus allowing the verdict in the director's favor. • In a similar incident, author Siddharth Dhanvant Sanghvi accused Bhandarkar of copying the poster of Heroine (2012) from the cover page of the former's book titled 'The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay.'
Favourite Things
Favourite Director	Mrinal Sen, Guru Dutt
Favourite Movies	Guide, Pyaasa, Mrigaya, Nayagan
Favourite Actress	Kareena Kapoor
Favourite Book Authors	Jeffrey Archer, Robert Ludlum
Girls, Affairs and More
Marital Status	Married
Affairs/Girlfriends	Not Known
Wife/Spouse	Renu Namboodiri (Interior Designer)
Marriage Date	December 15, 2003
Children	Son- None Daughter- Siddhi

Some Lesser Known Facts About Madhur Bhandarkar

• Does Madhur Bhandarkar smoke: Not Known

• Does Madhur Bhandarkar drink alcohol: Not Known

• Since Bhandarkar didn’t hail from a financially well-off family, he had to struggle a lot during his childhood. Having failed 6th standard, the ‘future’ of future filmmaker looked bleak. As a result, young Bhandarkar started delivering video cassettes on a cycle to people in Juhu and Bandra, including celebrities like Mithun Chakraborty.

• Due to this cassette delivery job, Bhandarkar had to often meet people from various walks of life viz. celebrities, bar owners, bar girls, laymen (waiting on traffic signals) etc. It is because of these experiences only that Bhandarkar now excels in making ‘realistic’ cinema.

• Soon, he began working as an assistant director to many ‘small-budget’ directors. In an interview, he revealed that working as an assistant director, at that time, fetched him a salary of INR 1,000.

• The big opportunity that Bhandarkar had been looking for came when one of his cousins introduced him to filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, who was looking for an assistant director for the film- Rangeela. Thus, Bhandarkar was chosen to ‘fill’ the ‘vacant position’. He even played a cameo role in the same.

• A couple of years later, Bhandarkar made his full-fledged directorial debut with the Arshad Warsi starrer Trishakti (1999). However, the movie took more than 3 years into making and couldn’t even find a proper release date.

• After hitting rock bottom with his debut film, Bhandarkar bounced back hard and came right back on track with the success of his 2011 film- Chandni Bar.

• He is a very loyal devotee of the Hindu god- Siddhivinayak.

• Interestingly, in a male-dominated cinema, most of the protagonists in his movies are female.

• He feels that a special honor was bestowed on him when he was invited as the special ‘Guest of Honour’ for the first International Yoga Day celebrations at the United Nations in New York on 21 June 2016.

• His film, Corporate (2006), was included as a ‘case study’ in IIM Ahmedabad’s curriculum.