Now here's a director whose film had no known names, had no big producer backing and yet he managed to deliver one of the biggest surprise hits of this year. Yes we are talking about debutant director Luv Ranjan whose film Pyaar Ka Punchnama did manage to pack in a solid punch (Pun intended). With 6 relatively new actors, Luv had a task on hand but with some quirky writing and a story that every young guy could identify with, Luv hit the bulls-eye. The film released with zero hype but grew on the basis of strong word of mouth as guys couldn't help but agree that they too have sometime been through what the 3 characters go through in the film. Luv is now working on his next tentatively titled Aakashwani which once again stars the pair of Kartik Tiwari and Nushrat Bharucha who played a live-in couple in Pyaar Ka Punchnama.
We've had very few successful director-duos in Bollywood like Abbas-Mustan etc. This year we saw two debutant directors collaborating together to give us one of the most heartwarming films of the year. Yes, we are talking about Nitesh Tiwari and Vikas Bahl who gave us Chillar Party, a film which was loved by young and old alike. Revolving around a bunch of kids in a small middle class neighbourhood in Mumbai, Chillar Party had no known names barring Ranbir Kapoor's item number but characters like Fatka, Jhangiya, Shaolin etc. became household names post the release of the film. The makers did have the backing of a corporate giant like UTV and were lucky to have Salman Khan associated with the project as a producer. But at the end it was the emotional connect which the film managed to achieve that resulted in its victory. Had the makers faltered on that ground, the film would have come a cropper and gone 'Tai Tai Phish', but that was not to be and Chillar Party remains one of the best films to have released in 2011 and much of that credit should go to the director duo of Nitesh Tiwari and Vikas Bahl.
After being an Assistant Director on many Yash Raj Films such as Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Tashan, New York etc, Ali Abbas Zafar got the dream breakthrough to direct a film for the same prestigious banner. Ali's debut film Mere Brother Ki Dulhan was a frothy romantic comedy starring Imran Khan, Katrina Kaif and Ali Zafar. With a stellar cast in hand, all Ali needed to do was stick to the basics and he did just that. The film did well at the Box Office and was loved by audiences pan India. The director has displayed that he does have a flair for rom-coms; it remains to be seen if he can prove his talent in other genres as well.
Even though Amole Gupte became a household name courtesy Taare Zameen Par for which he was credited as Writer and Creative Director, it's a film which he would best like to forget due to difference of opinion with director Aamir Khan. Amole made a smashing debut this year with Stanley Ka Dabba, a film about school kids, tiffin boxes and one that sensitively portrayed the issue of child labour in our country. It's not the easiest of tasks to direct small kids and Amole managed to do that with much aplomb extracting one of the best performances from his own son Partho who played the lead role. Even though the film was not a huge money spinner, it did find a sizeable audience and Amole's direction won him praise for most critics and leading filmmakers.
