Filmfare Award for Best Director
The 2025 recipient:Kiran Rao forLaapataa Ladies
Awarded for	Best Director
Country	India
Presented by	Filmfare
First award	Bimal Roy, Do Bigha Zamin (1954)
Currently held by	Kiran Rao, Laapataa Ladies (2025)
Website	Filmfare Awards

TheFilmfare Best Director Award is one of the main awards given by the annualFilmfare Awards to recognise directors working inHindi cinema. It was first presented in 1954 in the inaugural year.

Bimal Roy has the record of winning most awards (7) and the distinction of winning the award thrice in a row, on 2 separate occasions (1954–1956 and 1959–1961). He also won the award whenever he was nominated (7/7).Sanjay Leela Bhansali has received the award 5 times,Yash Chopra andRaj Kapoor has received the award 4 times each.

Yash Chopra received 12 nominations,Sanjay Leela Bhansali has received 8 nominations, whileRaj Kapoor has received 6 nominations.Mahesh Bhatt was nominated thrice in a row (1984–1986). However, he hasn't received any award even after having been nominated 6 times. Also, no director has ever won if one has been nominated twice in the same year –Gulzar in 1974 (forAchanak andKoshish),Basu Chatterjee in 1977 (forChhoti Si Baat andChitchor) andHrishikesh Mukherjee in 1980 (forGol Maal andJurmana).

Sai Paranjpye was the first of 5 women to have won this award, the second beingZoya Akhtar, the third beingAshwiny Iyer Tiwari, the fourth beingMeghna Gulzar and the fifth beingKiran Rao.Sai Paranjpye won it forSparsh in 1985. Paranjpye had earlier been nominated forChashme Buddoor in 1982.Zoya Akhtar won it forZindagi Na Milegi Dobara in 2012.Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari won it forBareilly Ki Barfi in 2018 andMeghna Gulzar won it in forRaazi in 2019, after previously being nominated in 2016 forTalvar. Akhtar won the award again forGully Boy in 2020, thus becoming the only woman to win the award twice.Kiran Rao won the award forLaapataa Ladies in 2025. Other women directors to have been nominated areMira Nair forSalaam Bombay! in 1990,Farah Khan forMain Hoon Na in 2005 and forOm Shanti Om in 2008,Gauri Shinde forEnglish Vinglish in 2013 andSeema Pahwa forRamprasad Ki Tehrvi in 2022.

Rajkumar Santoshi remains the only director to have won the award for his first two films – forGhayal in 1991 and forDamini in 1994.

Nitesh Tiwari andAshwiny Iyer Tiwari are the only married couple to win the award. Additionally, they won the award in consecutive years – the former won the award forDangal in 2017 and the latter won the award forBareilly Ki Barfi in 2018.

Only once have two siblings been nominated in the same year;Zoya Akhtar forZindagi Na Milegi Dobara andFarhan Akhtar forDon 2 in 2012, with Zoya winning the category.

The following Directors have received multiple Best Director nominations. The list is sorted by the number of total awards (with the number of total nominations listed in parentheses).

In the list below, the winner of the award for each year is shown first, followed by the other nominees. The films are listed by the years when the award was presented. The announcing of nominations became regular after 1959.

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• Filmfare Awards Best Director

• Filmfare Awards
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• Lists of Indian film directors

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