Mahmood Farooqui

Mahmood Farooqui Biography

Mahmood Farooqui is a historian, writer, screenwriter, director and an artist associated with Indian cinema who is specialized in a type of story-telling known as Dastangoi. He along with his uncle Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, noted poet and Urdu critic have played significant roles in the revival of Dastangoi in the past one decade or so, an Urdu oral storytelling art form. Farooqui published a series of his translations about his views on besieged in Delhi in 1857. He has also done research works on White Mughals – a history book authored by William Dalrymple in 2002.

He was born in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. He completed schooling from The Doon School where he got Rhodes Scholarship to read History at St. Peter's College, University of Oxford. He graduated in history from St. Stephen's College, Delhi. Mahmood Farooqui is married to Anusha Rizvi, former journalist of NDTV who directed the satire film, Peepli Live, which was India's official entry for the 83rd Academy Awards Best Foreign Film category. He helped Rizvi in the scriptwriting and co-directed the movie released in 2010 and produced by Aamir Khan and his wife Kiran Rao.

He published Besieged for Penguin books, which has a fascinating account of the experiences of residents of Delhi during the siege of Delhi by the British during summer1857. A researcher and historian, he also helped writer William Dalrymple in the research of the accomplished ‘The Last Mughal’. This historian and his uncle are known for their outstanding contributions in the revival of Dastangoi in the new millennium.  Since its revival, Farooqui and fellow actors have travelled across the world with their performances and they performed before Jama Masjid in Old Delhi and the Mohatta Palace in Karachi, Pakistan.

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Updated: December 11, 2015