Amit Ravindernath Sharma (born 13 April 1978) is an Indian film and advertisement director and producer. In feature films, he is best known for producing and directing the 2018 National-award winning film '' Badhaai Ho'', which was one of the highest grossing Bollywood films of 2018, having earned ₹220.34

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

( $31 million) as of December 2018.

Biography

Early life and career

Sharma was born in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, to parents who worked for the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

. While still in school, he connected with film director Pradeep Sarkar, and was invited to shoot an advert in Manali. After graduating, he worked with Sarkar for six years before moving to

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

in 2001. Two years later, he left the tutorship of Sarkar, and in 2004 he set up his own company, Chrome Pictures, with Aleya Sen and Hemant Bhandari. Later that year, he was offered an assistant role on Sarkar's film, ''Parineeta'', which he turned down.

Advertising

Between 2004 and 2024, Sharma has produced and directed over 6000 advertisements, including those for

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

and

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

. In 2011, he directed an advert entitled 'The Silent National Anthem' featured

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

and mute 'singing' the Jana Gana Mana through sign language, and won a silver award at the

Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) is a global event for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields. It is considered the largest gathering of the ...

. A 2013 advert for Lifebuoy focused on hygiene in Indian villages, and won Gold at the Spikes Asia awards later that year. The best-known advert he directed is perhaps the Google Reunion advert from November 2013, which told the fictional story about the reunion of two elderly men, one from

and one from

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, who were childhood friends but were separated as children during the

Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

. The ad had a strong impact in both countries, leading to hopes that travel restrictions between the two countries might be eased, and the video garnered over 1.6 million views on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

before debuting on television. His work during this time was described by ''

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. Owned by The Times Group, ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961 and it is sold in all major cities in India. As of 2012, it is the world's secon ...

'' as a "contemporary greatest hits of Indian advertising"''.''

Early film career and breakthrough

In 2014, Sharma was invited by producer Boney Kapoor to direct '' Tevar'', a remake of the 2003 Telugu film '' Okkadu,'' starring Arjun Kapoor. The film generally received mixed reviews. In 2016, Sharma was elected on the Cannes Lions Craft Jury. Sharma worked as the director on '' Badhaai Ho'', which began shooting in late 2017, and starred

Ayushmann Khurrana Ayushmann Khurrana (born Nishant Khurrana; 14 September 1984) is an Indian actor and singer who works in Hindi films. Known for his portrayals of ordinary men often battling social norms, he is the recipient of several awards, including a Na ...

and Neena Gupta. Sharma's production company Chrome Pictures produced the film alongside Junglee Pictures, and it was released on 18 October 2018. The film became the seventh-highest opening weekend grosser of 2018, and earned ₹220.34

($31 million) worldwide. The film won the National Film Award for Best Film Popular Providing Wholesome Entertainment. His next was an anthology film Lust Stories 2 - 'Tilchatta' starring Kajol Devgn which released on 29 June 2023 on Netflix. It became hugely popular and garnered great reviews. Sharma's latest release, Maidaan, is about the life and career of Syed Abdul Rahim, also produced by Boney Kapoor. The filming started in 2019, but was delayed due to the pandemic. The film features music by

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...

. It released on 10 April 2024 to tremendous critical acclaim.

Filmography

Awards

* 2011 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity – Silver ('The Silent National Anthem') * 2013 Spikes Asia – Gold ('Help A Child Reach 5', for Lifebuoy) * D&AD (Graphite & Wood for Facebook Pooja Didi) * Spikes Asia (Dove #StopTheBeautyTest) * Adfest (Facebook Pooja Didi) * London International Awards (Facebook Pooja Didi & Dove #StopTheBeautyTest) * National Film Award for Best Film Popular Providing Wholesome Entertainment - Feature film Badhaai Ho

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharma, Amit Indian art directors Living people 21st-century Indian people Hindi-language film directors Indian advertising directors Film directors from Delhi Directors who won the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment National Film Award 1980 births