Vijaya Mulay

Vijaya Mulay Biography

Vijaya Mulay is a film historian, critic, educationist and researcher. She has directed a few documentaries and authored a few books. Her animation film Ek Anek Aur Ekta won the National Film Award for Best Educational Film. She also served as a Jury member for best writing on cinema, constituted for the 59th National Film Awards. Noted actress Suhasini Mulay is her daughter, and physicist Atul Gurtu is her son in law.

Vijaya is a recipient of numerous awards and honours. In 2002 Vijaya was honoured with V. Shantaram Award for Lifetime Achievement for her contributions to the field of documentary films. She was the first woman to receive this honour. Many of her films have been shown at many international film festivals and have received many honours. She developed a multimedia package through SITE to train primary school teachers, widely regarded as a path breaking program in the field of education technology.

Vijaya Mulay was born on 16 May 1921 in Mumbai. Vijaya Mulay has witnessed two generations of documentary filmmaking ad is still documenting at the ripe age of 90+. She has been associated with the world of documentaries since 1946. She is the first woman president of the IDPA. She is busy with writing as well and has published the book - From Rajahs and Yogis to Gandhi and Beyond: India in International Cinema most recently. In this book she has written how she has entered the world of documentaries and her experiences with the first film.

Her first documentary film - The Tidal Bore was made in 1967. This 18-minute film was made on the fantastic phenomenon of the sea tide coming into the river at Kolkata. Since then she has made around 35 documentary films. Her last documentary film was made on the life of Gangubai Hangal. This scholar is also busy with her research works.

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Updated: March 20, 2016