Devashish Makhija

Devashish Makhija is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter, graphic artist, fiction writer and poet. He is best known for writing and directing the full-length feature films: Ajji, Oonga, and Bhonsle. He also authored the bestselling children's books, When Ali Became Bajrangbali and Why Paploo was Perplexed, along with a series of 49 short stories published as an anthology, Forgetting, published by HarperCollins. He has also worked on the films Black Friday and Bunty Aur Babli. He has also directed the new and upcoming film Joram. Early life Born and brought up in Park Circus, Devashish spent the first 24 years of his life in Kolkata. He completed his schooling at Don Bosco High School and pursued a degree in economics at St. Xavier's College. Following a brief stint in advertising with McCann Erickson and Mudra Kolkata after his graduation, Devashish arrived in Mumbai to pursue filmmaking. Career Devashish Makhija began his career in the Indian film industry as a researcher and assistant director on the critically acclaimed film Black Friday (2004), a film based on the namesake book by Hussain Zaidi about the 1993 Bombay bombings, the feature-film directorial of Anurag Kashyap. In the following year, he was also the chief assistant director to Shaad Ali on the blockbuster Bunty Aur Babli. Since then, he has written numerous screenplays, notably Avik Mukherjee's Bhoomi in the year 2008 and Anurag Kashyap's upcoming superhero project Doga. In addition to writing its story, screenplay and dialogue, Devashish made his feature-film directorial debut with the highly appreciated Hindi-Oriya film Oonga in 2013, starring Nandita Das, Seema Biswas, Salim Kumar and Raju Singh (as Oonga). Oonga made its world premiere at the New York Indian Film Festival on 3 May 2013 and was screened in the 'India Gold' competition section at the 15th Mumbai Film Festival, the 13th River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival and the Indian Film Festival at Melbourne in 2014. Oonga was also a part of the international competition at the International Film Festival of Kerala in 2014.