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Anupama Chopra | |
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.jpg) Chopra in 2017 | |
| Born | Anupama Chandra Calcutta, West Bengal, India |
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| Spouse | |
| Children | Zuni Chopra andAgni Chopra |
| Mother | Kamna Chandra |
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Anupama Vinod Chopra[1] (née Chandra) is an Indian author, journalist and film critic who served as the festival director of theMAMI Mumbai Film Festival from 2015 to 2023.[2] She is also the founder and editor of the now-defunct digital platform Film Companion, which offered a curated look at cinema with an emphasis on Indian film.[3] She has written several books onIndian cinema and has been a film critic forNDTV andIndia Today,[4] as well as theHindustan Times. She also hosted a weekly film review show,The Front Row With Anupama Chopra, onStar World.[5] She won the2000 National Film Award forBest Book on Cinema for her first bookSholay: The Making of a Classic. Chopra joined the Indian iteration of the film journalism outletThe Hollywood Reporter in 2024, launched domestically in the same year by theRP Sanjiv Goenka Group.[6]
Born as Anupama Chandra in Calcutta, India to Chandra Prasad family, she has also lived inBadayun, a city in Uttar Pradesh. Her father, Navin Chandra, was the eldest among his siblings. Anupama's grandfather, originally from Delhi, was an executive withUnion Carbide inKolkata. Her mother,Kamna Chandra, was a scriptwriter who wrote dialogue for such films asPrem Rog (1982) andChandni (1989).[citation needed] Chopra grew up with her brother and sister in Mumbai, where her family lived in theNepean Sea Road neighbourhood, and then inCuffe Parade. Her sister,Tanuja Chandra, is an Indian film director and screenwriter; her brother,Vikram Chandra, is a novelist, who splits his time between California and India.[7] She also lived in Hong Kong for several years as a teenager. She graduated fromSt. Xavier's College, Mumbai with a BA in English Literature in 1987.[7]
Later, Chopra earned her MA in journalism fromNorthwestern University'sMedill School of Journalism. She won the Harrington Award for "academic excellence and promise for success in the field of magazine journalism" while at Medill. She later said, "Film journalism was untouchable at the time. Everybody was ashamed and nobody wanted to admit that I worked for movies."[7]
After her education, Chopra started her career as a film journalist and critic and over the years has written several books on films, especially Hindi cinema. She has written about the Hindi film industry since 1993 and has explored cinema in several mediums – print, television and digital. Her first bookSholay: The Making of a Classic (2000) won the 2001National Film Award for Best Book on Cinema (India).[8]
Chopra's 2011 bookFirst Day First Show: Writings from the Bollywood Trenches, is a compilation of her articles on Hindi cinema over two decades, published by Penguin India.[6]
Chopra hosted film review show,Picture This onNDTV 24X7 news channel.[9] In 2012, she started her weekly review show calledThe Front Row with Anupama Chopra, onStar World, which ran until June 2014.[9][10][11] In 2013, she released two books,Freeze Frame based on the interviews with film makers and actors on the TV show,[12] and100 Films to See before You Die based on her weekly film columns.[13] In 2014, she also did a Hindi show called 'Star Verdict' on Star Plus.
In November 2014, Chopra replaced Srinivasan Narayanan to become the festival director of theMAMI Mumbai Film Festival organized by theMumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI).[14][15] She remained in this role until June 2024, when she stepped down and was replaced by interim festival directorShivendra Singh Dungarpur.[2]
In July 2014, Chopra founded the websiteFilm Companion as a pan-India platform for entertainment journalism. The platform carried reviews, interviews, features and masterclasses on cinema, television and web series content. Chopra, Rahul Desai,Sucharita Tyagi and Pratayush Parasuraman wrote for the platform.[16][17]Baradwaj Rangan also wrote for many years before leaving on 15 March 2022.[18] In July 2024, Chopra announced that she was moving on and that theFilm Companion, site was closing down.[19][20]
Chopra is married toVidhu Vinod Chopra, a producer and director of Hindi films.[7][21] Her daughterZuni Chopra (born 2001/2002) is the author of three books, including a novel and two books in poetry.[22] Her sonAgni Dev Chopra is a cricketer.[23]
Starting today, Anupama Chopra becomes Hindustan Times' film critic.
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