Apurba Kishore Bir

Apurba Kishore Bir Biography

Apurba Kishore Bir is a national award winning cinematographer, scriptwriter and film director. Many of his ventures have earned National level recognition. Till now he has earned nine National Film Awards including best direction and cinematography. His career as a cinematographer started in the year 1973 with the movie, 27 Down and the movie earned him National award for best cinematographer. He was a part of the first-unit cameramen of Oscar award winning movie – Gandhi (1982). His directional debut Adi Mimansa too garnished a National award. This movie earned Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration in 1991. This movie also earned him National award for best cinematographer. Apart from his debut works as a cinematographer and director, the third movie which bagged National award for cinematographer was Daasi in 1988. He was honoured with Padma shri in 2013.

He belongs to Odisha and holds a diploma from FTII. Since childhood he has a special passion on painting. That’s the reason why he joined FTII and studied motion-picture cinematography. After studies, he worked on documentary films as a cinematographer before making his debut in film field. For his debut movie, 27 Down he shot 70% with handheld camera and this movie bagged him his first National award too.

He made his directorial debut with Aadi Mimansa in 1991. Two of his children movies have earned National award - Lavanya Preeti (1991) and Baaja (2002). As a cinematographer his noted Bollywood movies include – Hamari bahu Alka, Pestonjee, Khatta Metta, Dooriyan, Prem Vivaah etc. He has also written scripts for a few movies like Aadat Se Majboor, Hamari beti etc.

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Updated: April 22, 2014