Sushma Ahuja is an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

director, writer and actor who has worked on Hindi, English and Tamil films and plays.

Career

Sushma began her career as a singer with

All India Radio All India Radio (AIR), also known as Akashvani (), is India's state-owned public broadcasting, public radio broadcaster. Founded in 1936, it operates under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broa ...

and a dancer during her teenage years, before becoming involved in the Hindi theatre circuit, where she worked on Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi performances. In 1977, Sushma relocated to

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

with her family as a result of her husband's job, and then worked closely with a theatre group called "Abhudhay", which performed Hindi, Tamil and English shows. She became acquainted with film makers including

Singeetham Srinivasa Rao Singeetam Srinivasa Rao (born 21 September 1931) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, producer, composer, and actor. He is widely regarded as one of India's most versatile and innovative filmmakers. He has directed around sixty films across ...

and

L. V. Prasad Akkineni Laxmi Vara Prasada Rao (17 January 1907 – 22 June 1994), known professionally as L. V. Prasad, was an Indian film director, producer, actor, and businessman. He was one of the pioneers of Indian cinema and is the recipient of the Da ...

who encouraged her to take up film direction, so she subsequently apprenticed under

Balu Mahendra Balanathan Benjamin Mahendran (20 May 1939 13 February 2014), commonly known as Balu Mahendra, was a Sri Lankan Tamil cinematographer, director, screenwriter and film editor who worked in various Indian film industries, primarily in Tamil ...

T. Rama Rao Tatineni Rama Rao (1938 – 20 April 2022) was an Indian filmmaker. He directed 75 Hindi and Telugu feature films between 1966 and 2000. Career Rao started his work in the film industry in the late 1950s as the assistant director of his cousi ...

and

Yash Chopra Yash Raj Chopra (27 September 1932 21 October 2012) was an Indian film director and film producer who worked in Bollywood, Hindi cinema. The founding chairman of the film production and distribution company Yash Raj Films, Chopra was the reci ...

on a number of films. Sushma regularly helped work on Hindi versions of Tamil films, often transliterating dialogues. She was also credited for assisting actress

Sridevi Sridevi Kapoor (née Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan; 13 August 1963 – 24 February 2018), known mononymously as Sridevi, was an Indian actress who worked in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada language films. She is regarded as one of ...

in her transition to work in Hindi films by helping her with Hindi dialogues. Sushmaa has been credited as an actress, writer and director in films. Notably, she directed an animated series titled ''Tara Ki Duniya'' for DD Metro, and ''

Uyirodu Uyiraga ''Uyirodu Uyiraga'' () is a 1998 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by Sushma Ahuja. The film stars Ajith Kumar and Richa Ahuja, while Sarath Babu, Srividya, Ambika, and Mohan Sharma play supporting roles. The musi ...

'' (1998), a romantic drama featuring

Ajith Kumar Ajith Kumar Subramaniam (born 1 May 1971) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. To date, he has starred in over 63 films, and won four Vijay Awards, three Cinema Express Awards, three Filmfare Awards South and three Ta ...

and her daughter Richa Ahuja. The film released to positive reviews, with a critic noting that the film was "a clean movie with no masala stuff" but criticized the "weak story-line". Another critic drew particular praise to the role of

Srividya Srividya (24 July 1953 – 19 October 2006), was an Indian actress best known for her work predominantly in Malayalam and Tamil films, along with few Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films. In a career spanning for 40 years, she had acted in more t ...

, claiming the film was "a pleasant experience, the crowds cheered Srividya almost as much as Ajith". The film failed commercially, with Sushma Ahuja blaming the result on poor promotion. She has worked on the script for films including ''

Little John Little John is a companion of Robin Hood who serves as his chief lieutenant and second-in-command of the Merry Men. He is one of only a handful of consistently named characters who relate to Robin Hood and one of the two oldest Merry Men, alo ...

'' (2001) and ''

Ek Alag Mausam ''Ek Alag Mausam'' () (Hindi: एक अलग मौसम) is a 2003 Hindi movie directed by K. P. Sasi with Nandita Das, Anupam Kher and Rajit Kapur in the lead roles. Renuka Shahane, Arundathi Nag, Sreelatha and Sally Dynevor are in the ...

'' (2003). Her acting roles include appearances in

M. Night Shyamalan Manoj Nelliyattu M. Night Shyamalan ( ; born August 6, 1970) is an American filmmaker. His films often employ supernatural plots and twist endings. The cumulative gross of his films exceeds $3.3 billion globally. Shyamalan has received vario ...

's English film '' Praying with Anger'' (1992) and Sridevi's television series ''

Malini Iyer ''Malini Iyer'' is an Indian sitcom that aired on Sahara One starring Sridevi. The series is produced Boney Kapoor and directed by Satish Kaushik. The series premiered on 19 January 2004. Overview The story revolves round the life of a south I ...

'' (2004).

Personal life

Sushma Ahuja has 3 children, Saurabh, Richa, who has appeared in films such as ''

'' (1998) and ''

Dumm Dumm Dumm ''Dumm Dumm Dumm'' () is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film co-written and directed by Azhagam Perumal and produced by director Mani Ratnam under his home studio, Madras Talkies. It stars R. Madhavan and Jyothika, with Vivek, Ma ...

'' (2001), and Suhaas Ahuja.

Partial filmography

*''Note: All films are in Hindi, unless otherwise noted.''

As actor

As writer and director

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ahuja, Sushma Living people Film directors from Chennai Indian women film directors Hindi-language screenwriters Tamil screenwriters Indian women screenwriters Screenwriters from Chennai 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian actresses 1952 births