Deepa Mehta Biography

Deepa Mehta is an Indo-Canadian filmmaker. She was born on 1st January 1950 in Amritsar, Punjab. She attended Welham Girls High School and also holds a degree in Philosophy from Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi. Her father being a film distributor, she developed her interest in the process of filmmaking. Soon after completing her graduation, she actively devoted herself in creating short documentaries in India.

Mehta's film career started in Canada as a scriptwriter for children's film, meanwhile she continued her making documentaries, one of them includes 'At 99: A Portrait of Louise Tandy Murch'. Later in the year 1991, she marked her directorial debut with 'Sam & Me'. It won honourable mention in Camera d'Or category of Cannes Film Festival. Her next film was 'Camilla' in 1994. In 2002, she directed Rahul Khanna and Lisa Ray starrer, 'Bollywood Hollywood' and won Genie Award for Best Screenplay for it.

Mehta is globally known for her famous Elements Trilogy, 'Fire', 'Earth' and 'Water'. She was critically acclaimed for her rich, complex exploration of cultural taboos and tensions at play in the society of her native India. She touched upon the sensitive topic of homosexuality and voiced the repressive feelings of neglected housewives in Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das starrer 'Fire'. Though, the film brought her huge critical acclaim, it had to face the huge controversy in India. Her second installment of the trio, 'Earth' was set in 1947's Indo-Pak partition era. Her third film of Element Trilogy was 'Water', based on corrupt rituals forced on Indian widows. This film too, underwent controversial trauma, but Deepa's fierce motto brought her victory, gaining her the nomination of Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2006.

Deepa has also directed several English movies including, 'The Republic of Love' and Preity Zinta starrer 'Heaven on Earth'. For her recent film 'Midnight's Children', she collaborated with Salman Rushdie.

Deepa has got married twice. Initially, she got married to Canadian filmmaker Paul Saltzman during his visit to India and migrated to Canada. They have a daughter named Devyani, an acclaimed author. Later, the couple divorced in the year 1993. Then she married producer David Hamilton.