Shaad Ali

Shaad Ali Biography

Shaad Ali is a young successful director of Bollywood most famous for his debut movie Saathiya (2002) and second movie, Bunty aur Bubly (2003). He has also directed Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, a musical and his fourth project, Kill Dil is scheduled to release on 2014. Though he has done only 3 movies till now, his name is counted among the successful directors of Bollywood at present. Earlier he worked as the assistant of famous director Mani Ratnam and he debut Bollywood by directing a hit Mani Ratnam movie, Alayppayuthey in Bollywood titled Saathiya. He used Rehman’s rhythms in this movie as well.

Shaad Ali is the son of a Marxist leader, Muzaffar Ali. His mother’s name is Subhashini Sehgal. Thus he is the grandson of Azad Hind Fauj commander Lakshmi Sehgal. He studied at the Welham Boys' School and the Lawrence School, Sanawar. Shaad Ali entered film field as the assistant of great director Mani Ratnam and their association started with Dil se long back in 1998. Even after becoming an established director of Bollywood he assisted Mani Ratnam in a few more productions like Guru and Raavan (both Hindi and Tamil). The original script of Shaad Ali’s debut movie Saathiya was written by none other than Mani Ratnam. In 2002, its music topped all chartbusters and won almost all music awards beating Devdas. Rani Mukherjee and Vivek Oberoi reprised the roles played by Shalini and Madhavan and their performances stole everyone’s heart. Rani Mukherjee won Filmfare critics’ award and best actress nomination as well. Its music became more successful than its original Tamil version, released two years before. Shah Rukh Khan and Tabu reprised the roles played by Aravind Swamy and Khushboo and their friendly appearance was kept a secret till the movie was released. Their game plan worked and their surprise entry helped a lot in the huge success of the film as well.

He repeated the success with his next movie as well. Leading lady role was again given to Rani Mukherji. Bunty aur Bubly was the first solo hit of Abhishek Bachchan after numerous struggles and flops and it earned fame to Shaad Ali as a director too. He also roped in Aiswarya Rai to do an item number along with Bachchans which topped all music countdowns that year. However, his experiments with Jhoom barabar jhoom couldn’t repeat the success of first two movies. Yet the movie is still remembered for its lovely songs.

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Updated: September 05, 2013