Anusha Rizvi

Anusha Rizvi Biography

Anusha Rizvi, formerly a journalist is an award winning film director and screenwriter of Bollywood, best known for the satire comedy - Peepli Live, the movie that marked her directorial debut. The movie was screened at various film festivals in India and abroad, and received numerous awards including the Best First Film award at the Durban film festival and the Gollapudi Srinivas Award. The movie was produced by Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao and a satire take on the topic of "farmer suicides" and how media make big buzz with a small topic. Peepli Live was India's official entry for the 83rd Academy Awards Best Foreign Film category.

Anusha was born in Delhi in the year 1978. She completed graduation in History from St.Stephen's College, Delhi. She worked with NDTV as a journalist before she turned director. Anusha is married to Mahmood Farooqui, an Indian writer and director who was also involved with the movie – Peepli Live. She has teamed up with her to direct her second movie 'Opium' and is also planning a Bhojpuri film.

She somehow collected Aamir Khan’s mail id and wrote a short mail with subject - "The Falling" -- Rizvi's first choice of title for the film. Aamir was doing the epic of Mangal Pandey when he received the mail and assumed it to be a prank played by someone. He opened the mail only because it’s short. Anusha kept mailing and finally convinced him to meet, where she narrated the script in short. That’s how Aamir Khan accepted to produce the film. The movie also received numerous awards and nominations in different Indian film awards. Anusha received Apsara Award for Best Story. The movie mostly starred less known actors and character artists and included an ensemble cast of Omkar Das Manikpuri, Raghubir Yadav, Shalini Vatsa, Malaika Shenoy, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and the veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah. The movie is her tribute to the celebrated writer – Premchand, who wrote the novel Godaan. 

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Updated: December 11, 2015