Deepa Mehta

Deepa Mehta, ( born 1 January 1950) is an Indo-Canadian film director and screenwriter, best known for her Elements Trilogy, "Fire" (1996), "Earth" (1998), and "Water" (2005).
"Earth" was submitted by India as its official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and "Water" was Canada's official entry for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, making it only the third non-French-language Canadian film submitted in that category after Attila Bertalan's 1990 invented-language film "A Bullet to the Head" and Zacharias Kunuk's 2001 Inuktitut-language feature "".
She co-founded Hamilton-Mehta Productions, with her husband, producer David Hamilton in 1996. She was awarded a Genie Award in 2003 for the screenplay of "Bollywood/Hollywood". In May 2012, Mehta received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts.
Early life.
Mehta was born in Amritsar, Punjab though her family moved to New Delhi while she was still a child, and her father worked as a film distributor. Subsequently, Mehta attended Welham Girls High School, boarding school in Dehradun on the foothills of Himalayas. She graduated from the Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi with a degree in Philosophy.
Career.
After graduating Mehta began working for a production company that made documentary and educational films for the Indian government. During the production of her first feature-length documentary focusing on the working life of a child bride, she met and married Canadian documentary filmmaker Paul Saltzman, who was in India making a film. She migrated to Toronto to live with her husband in 1973.
Once in Canada, Mehta and Saltzman along with Mehta's brother Dilip started Sunrise Films, a production company, initially producing documentaries but moved into television production creating the television series "Spread Your Wings" (1977–79) about the creative and artistic work of young people from around the world. Additionally, Mehta directed several episodes of the Saltzman produced CBC drama "Danger Bay" (1984–90).
Mehta also directed the documentaries "" (1975) and "Traveling Light" (1986), the latter focusing on the work of Mehta's brother Dilip as a photojournalist. "Traveling Light" would go on to be nominated for three Gemini Awards. In 1987, based on the works of Alice Munro, Cynthia Flood and Betty Lambert, Mehta produced and co-directed "Martha, Ruth and Edie". Screened at the Cannes International Film Festival, it would go on to win the Best Feature Film Award at the 11th International Film Festival in Florence in 1988.
In 1991 she made her feature-film directorial debut with "Sam & Me" (starring Om Puri), a story of the relationship between a young Indian boy and an elderly Jewish gentleman in the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale. It broke the record at the time for the highest-budgeted film directed by a woman in Canada at $11 million. It won Honorable Mention in the Camera d'Or category of the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. Mehta followed this with her film "Camilla" starring Bridget Fonda and Jessica Tandy in 1994. In 2002, she directed "Bollywood/Hollywood", for which she won the Genie Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Mehta directed two episodes of George Lucas' television series "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles". The first episode, "Benares, January 1910", aired in 1993. The second episode was aired in 1996 as part of a TV movie titled "Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father".
Mehta directed several English-language films set in Canada, including "The Republic of Love" (2003) and "Heaven on Earth" (2008) which deals with domestic violence and has Preity Zinta playing the female lead. It premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. Also in 2008 Mehta produced the documentary "The Forgotten Woman", directed by her brother Dilip.
In 2015, Mehta wrote and directed the crime thriller "Beeba Boys" (2015), a film starring Randeep Hooda as Jeet Johar, a proud observant Sikh and a ruthless gangster. It premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.
On 29 October 2020, Telefilm Canada announced that Metha's film "Funny Boy" (2020) would represent Canada in the Academy Awards race for best international feature film.
Elements trilogy.
Mehta is best known for her Elements Trilogy — "Fire" (1996), "Earth" (1998) (released in India as "1947: Earth"), and "Water" (2005) — which won her much critical acclaim. Some notable actors who have worked in this trilogy are Aamir Khan, Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, John Abraham, Rahul Khanna, Lisa Ray, and Nandita Das. These films are also notable for Mehta's collaborative work with author Bapsi Sidhwa. Sidhwa's novel "Cracking India" (1991, U.S.; 1992, India; originally published as "Ice Candy Man", 1988, England) is the basis for Mehta's 1998 film "Earth". Mehta's film "Water" was later published by Sidhwa as the 2006 novel "Water: A Novel". All three films have soundtracks composed by A. R. Rahman.
"Fire" follows the love affair between two sisters-in-law whose own sexless marriages bring them together in a passionate romance. It caused controversy upon its release as several Hindutva groups took issue with its central lesbian romance, one that was seen to break traditional family and religious value within society, as there were protests in cities across India. Internationally, the film was critically acclaimed and would go on to win the Most Popular Canadian Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival. This was also the first feature length dramatic film which Mehta both wrote and directed, a practice which she would continue throughout the rest of her career.
"Earth" focuses on the time before and during the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and how the life of one family was uprooted by this historical event. The film resembled Mehta's own family history as her parents fled the newly created Pakistan in 1947 whilst Mehta herself was born in Punjab, not far from the Indian/Pakistan border.
"Water" is the story of an eight-year-old child widow who is forced to enter a house of widows for the rest of her life. The film, meant to be shot in India, was attacked by Hindu fundamentalists who saw the film as disrespectful and who took issues with Mehta's earlier films and their portrayal of Hindu culture. Riots broke out, sets were destroyed, and death threats were issued towards the actors and Mehta, forcing production to stop. The regional government then overruled the permission given from the central government to the production which allowed them to film in the holy city of Varanasi however, four years later the movie was made in Sri Lanka. "Water" opened the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006.
"Midnight's Children".
Mehta collaborated on the screenplay for "Midnight's Children" with the novel's author, Salman Rushdie. Indian American actor Satya Bhabha played the role of Saleem Sinai while other roles were played by Shriya Saran, Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher, Siddharth Narayan, Rahul Bose, Soha Ali Khan, Shahana Goswami and Darsheel Safary.
The film was released on 9 September 2012 at Toronto International Film Festival and would be nominated for Best Motion Picture along with 7 other nominations at the Canadian Screen Awards.
Themes.
Many of Mehta's films across her career have focused on the duality of her national and cultural identity which has informed much of her filmmaking as she has been described as the "quintessential transnational filmmaker". With her childhood and heritage informing her of key Indian and Hindu traditions, she has been seen to compare these practices with a more "Westernized" philosophy that has often resulted in controversy. The production of her film "Water" was delayed by protests from Hindu fundamentalists whilst several of her other films releases have seen boycotts across India, including the film "Fire."
Personal life.
In Canada she met and married filmmaker Paul Saltzman whom she divorced in 1983. The couple have a daughter, Devyani Saltzman, an acclaimed author, curator and cultural critic.
Mehta is currently married to producer David Hamilton. Her brother, Dilip Mehta, is a photojournalist and film director. He directed "Cooking with Stella", which he co-wrote with Deepa.
Mehta participated in a TV PSA for the charity Artists Against Racism, and is a member of the organization.
Awards.
In addition to her filmmaking awards, Mehta has received the following honors: