Sriram Raghavan
Raghavan in 2019
Born	(1963-06-22)22 June 1963 (age 61) Bombay,Maharashtra, India
Occupations	Film director screenwriter
Years active	1987-present
Relatives	Shridhar Raghavan (brother)

Sriram Raghavan (born 22 June 1963) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works inHindi cinema. He is primarily considered anauteur of neo-noir action thrillers.

Raghavan made his directorial debut withEk Hasina Thi (2004). He then went on to direct the critically acclaimedJohnny Gaddaar (2007), an adaptation of the 1962 French novelLes mystifiés by Alain Reynaud-Fourton; followed by the action spy filmAgent Vinod (2012) starringSaif Ali Khan; a critical and commercial failure. Raghavan's followupBadlapur (2015), a film based onDeath's Dark Abyss byMassimo Carlotto met with positive reviews and was a moderate commercial success at the box office.

Raghavan's prominence increased withAndhadhun (2018) which tells the story of a blind piano player who unwittingly becomes embroiled in the murder of a retired actor. The film received critical acclaim and was commercially successful. He is the recipient of several accolades, including two National film Awards and twoFilmfare Awards.

Raghavan was born inBombay (Mumbai),Maharashtra in a TamilIyerBrahmin family to a botanist father and a film-enthusiast mother. He grew up inPune, where he did his schooling at theSt. Vincent's High School. He also studied economics atFergusson College inPune.

He is a graduate ofFilm and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.^[1]Rajkumar Hirani, one of his batch-mates, edited his diploma film,The Eight Column Affair, which went on win theNational Film Award in 1987.^[2] He is the brother of Sridhar Raghavan, a writer known for the television series,C.I.D., and the 2019 action thriller,War.^[3]

Raghavan started his career before joining the FTII forStardust, but left since he wasn't interested in it. Post his FTII studies, he made a documentaryRaman Raghav, withRaghuvir Yadav.Later he worked as a writer for television soaps, writing many episodes of CID and Aahat, and also directed one episode of theStar Bestsellers called 'First Kill' Later, he metRam Gopal Varma, who liked his work inRaman Raghav, and signed him up for the filmEk Hasina Thi, a dark thriller starringSaif Ali Khan andUrmila Matondkar.^[4]

Raghavan later went on to direct another thriller,Johnny Gaddaar, which marked the debut ofNeil Nitin Mukesh. The film was positively received by critics, though it didn't fare well at the box office; it has since been considered a cult classic.^[5] His third film was the spy thrillerAgent Vinod which is not a remake of the1977 action film of the same name^[6] StarringSaif Ali Khan as the titular character alongsideKareena Kapoor, it received mixed reviews from critics and failed at the box office.^[7]

Raghavan next directed and wrote the revenge thrillerBadlapur starringVarun Dhawan,Nawazuddin Siddiqui,Huma Qureshi,Yami Gautam which was released on 20 February 2015. Based on the novelDeath's Dark Abyss by Italian writerMassimo Carlotto, it received positive reviews from critics.^[8][9] Sudhish Kamath fromThe Hindu wrote "Sriram Raghavan’s latest is a fantastic return to form and the kind of cinema he revels in making: character-driven narratives with funny, dark, explosive situations, a realistic exploration of filmy tropes."^[10] The film won sixFilmfare Awards including Best Film and Best Director. It was a moderate box office success, grossing over₹81.3 crore (US$9.5 million) worldwide.^[11][2]

Raghavan's next venture was theblack comedy crime thrillerAndhadhun, starringAyushmann Khurana,Tabu, andRadhika Apte, which released on 5 October 2018 to critical acclaim.^[12] Raghavan sawL'Accordeur (The Piano Tuner), a 2010 French short film about a blind pianist, in 2013 at the recommendation of his friend, filmmakerHemanth M Rao and was inspired by it.^[11][13][14] In a positive review of the film, Sushant Mehta ofIndia Today wrote, "Raghavan's ability to shock an entire cinema hall including the most immovable, emotionless fan coupled with his ability to make the audience laugh during these moments where your heart is in your mouth defines his unique brand of cinema".^[15]The film earned₹4.56 billion (US$53 million) worldwide, a majority of which came from the Chinese box office, to become his highest-grossing release and one ofIndian cinema's biggest grossers.^[16][17]

• Sriram Raghavan atIMDb
• "Interview (2008)". CNN-IBN. Archived fromthe original on 8 August 2013. Retrieved11 January 2012.

• 1963 births
• Living people
• Artists from Pune
• Film and Television Institute of India alumni
• Indian male screenwriters
• Hindi-language film directors
• Filmfare Awards winners
• Screen Awards winners
• Indian Tamil people
• Film directors from Maharashtra
• 21st-century Indian people
• Indian experimental filmmakers
• Best Adapted Screenplay National Film Award winners
• International Indian Film Academy Awards winners

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