Deepa Mehta

Deepa Mehta Biography

Deepa Mehta is an Indo-Canadian film director and screenwriter. Her films made on Elements Trilogy – Fire (1996), 1947 Earth (1998) and Water (2005) placed her among the directors of parallel cinema, yet they have controversies associated with them. 1947 Earth was India’s official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and ‘Water’ was Canada's official entry for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Thus it became the first non-French Canadian film to win this appreciation. She is the co-founder of Hamilton-Mehta Productions, with her husband Hamilton, a film producer. She has received Genie awards - Academy awards of Canadian Cinema and Television.  The movie was Bollywood/Hollywood released in the year 2002. Her movie Fire based on homosexual relations was one of the first mainstream films in India to explicitly show the relationship between two women. Nandita Das and Shabana Azmi played the key roles. The movie received several protests from home country India as well. Deepa Mehta has directed two episodes of George Lucas’ television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

Deepa’s career began with documentary films. She happened to meet Canadian documentarian Paul Saltzman. She married him and 1973 and migrated to Canada. However the couple got separated in 1983. In Canada she gained popularity through screenplays of movies for children. At 99: A Portrait of Louise Tandy Murch (1975) was one of her successful documentary films. Her directorial debut happened in the year 1991 with the movie, Sam & Me, a movie that told story of relationship between a young Indian boy and an elderly Jewish gentleman. This movie won Honorable Mention in the Camera d'Or category at Cannes Festival the same year. In 1994, Mehta’s movie Camilla was released.

After a short break, she directed movies based on ‘Panchabhuth’ – Fire, Earth and Water. Other movies are - The Republic of Love (2003), Heaven on Earth (2008) and Midnight's Children (2012). Her daughter Devyani Saltzman is also a well known personality. She is a well acclaimed author, curator and cultural critic.

Published: N/A

Updated: November 19, 2013