This filmmaker started his career as a researcher and assistant director in Bollywood.
Sometimes, even when we try our hardest, success can be difficult to achieve. Today, we will talk about one such director who has been giving us good films, still struggling to pay rent due to financial losses.
We are talking about Devashish Makhija, who assisted Shaad Ali on the hit fit Bunty Aur Babli starring Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukerji, but is now struggling to pay rent.
1. Early life:
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Devashish Makhija was born and raised in Park Circus, Kolkata. He attended Don Bosco High School and later studied economics at St. Xavier's College. After working in advertising with McCann Erickson and Mudra Kolkata for sometime, he moved to Mumbai to pursue a career in filmmaking.
2. Career
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Devashish Makhija started in the Indian film industry as a researcher and assistant director for the movie Black Friday (2004) by Anurag Kashyap. He later assisted Shaad Ali on Bunty Aur Babli starring Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukerji.
3. Directorial debut
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Devashish made his directorial debut with film Oonga (2013), starring Nandita Das and Seema Biswas, which premiered at the New York Indian Film Festival. He has also directed well-received short films such as Rahim Murge Pe Mat Ro (2008) and El'ayichi (2015), and his short Absent (2015) was showcased at international film festivals.
He also directed Manoj Bajpayee-starrer Johram, released in 2023.
4. Financial difficulties
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In an interview with Pranav Chokhani, Devashish revealed that he had faced financial hardship. Despite this, his recent film Joram was screened at prestigious film festivals and received several awards. He said, "I have not made money off any of my films. I struggle to pay rent. Because Joram didn’t make any of its money back, I am bankrupt. I haven’t paid rent in the last five months. Main abhi landlord ke aage haath-pair jod raha hoon ke yaar mujhe ghar se mat nikalo (I’m begging my landlord to not evict me from my house). That is the price you have to pay if you want to prioritise your art."
Devashish also mentioned that despite having 20 scripts ready, he struggled to find producers willing to invest in his projects. His directorial debut feature, Ajji (2017), did not feature any big stars and was made on a budget of Rs 1 crore. Unfortunately, despite its release in theaters, Ajji earned only Rs15 lakh at the box office.
5. About Joram
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Joram featured Manoj Bajpayee as a father fighting against injustice to safeguard his infant daughter. The film, which also starred Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, recently won the Best Film (Critics) award at the 69th Filmfare Awards.
Devashish Makhija received the Best Writing in Feature Film award at the Critics Choice Awards for his work on the film.
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