Nagesh Kukunoor

Nagesh Kukunoor Naidu
Nagesh Kukunoor at Saarang 2011, IIT Madras' cultural festival
Born	March 30, 1967 (1967-03-30) (age 44) Hyderabad, India
Occupation	Film director, Actor

Nagesh Kukunoor (born 30 March 1967) is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter. He is known for movies such as Hyderabad Blues (1998), Rockford (1999), 3 Deewarein (2003) and Iqbal (2005).

Early life

Nagesh Kukunoor was born to Kusuma Sudershan and KS Naidu in Hyderabad. As a kid he loved watching Telugu, Hindi, and English films in the theatres of his neighbourhood, Narayanguda. He then did his intermediate from Little Flower Junior College, Hyderabad and went ahead to do Chemical Engineering at Osmania University in Hyderabad, and graduated with a Bachelor's degree. He moved to Atlanta, Georgia in the United States in 1988, and completed his Master's degree in Chemical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology^[1]. He studied Acting & direction at the Warehouse Actor's Theater in Atlanta.^[2]

Movie career

He invested the money he made from his engineering career in USA in producing the movie Hyderabad Blues. It is based on a script that he wrote in Atlanta dealing with Indians returning home from the United States of America. He directed and acted in the movie. It was a budget of Rs. 17 lakhs (1.7 million, roughly equivalent to U.S. $ 40,000/-) and shot in 17 days. It was perceived by Sanjay Arora, an independent film maker, to be realistic and among one of the first movies to use Hyderabadi Urdu correctly.^[3] It became the most successful independent film in India.^[4]The film was featured at Peachtree International Film Festival in Atlanta and Rhode Island International Film Festival. ^[5]

Later movies

3 Deewarein which was based on Shawshank Redemption(2003) was premiered at the Kolkata Film Festival.^[6] In contrast to his earlier work, it had a budget of 2.1 crore (US$425,880) and featured established actors including Naseeruddin Shah, Juhi Chawla and Jackie Shroff.^[7]

His film Iqbal (film)^[8], 2005 which was brilliantly written by Vipul K Rawal featuring Shreyas Talpade and Naseeruddin Shah won a lot of critical acclaim for both for the simple yet heart rendering script and the acting by all actors. It was after this film he was started to be taken a little seriously as a film maker.

8x10 Tasveer (2009), features Akshay Kumar in the lead role and Ayesha Takia as the female lead it is a thriller with a touch of Hollywood style cinematography, but fared poorly at the box office. It is considered to be Nagesh's most self reflective work to date. "I like to cast characters who are close to me. And this one gets as close to me as possible. I was once an environmental consultant. Akshay plays the part of an environment protection officer," Kukunoor said in an April 2009 interview.^[9] His latest movie Mod sank without a trace at the box office.

Filmography

• One Culture at a time (1995) Short film
• Hyderabad Blues (1998)
• Rockford (1999)
• Bollywood Calling (2001)
• 3 Deewarein (2003)
• Hyderabad Blues 2 (2004)
• Iqbal (2005)
• Dor (2006)
• Bombay To Bangkok (2008)
• 8x10 Tasveer (2009)
• Aashayein (2010)
• Mod (2011)

Awards

• National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues - Iqbal - 2006
• Filmfare Award for Best Story - 3 Deewarein - 2004
• Teacher's Achievement Award for Creative and Performing Arts - 2002
• Audience Award for best film at the Peachtree International Film Festival in Atlanta, Georgia - Hyderabad Blues - 1999
• Audience Award for best film at the Rhode Island International Film Festival - Hyderabad Blues - 1999^[10][11]

References

1. ^ "Nagesh Kukunoor - Biography". http://www.chakpak.com/celebrity/nagesh-kukunoor/biography/17545. Retrieved 2009-09-23. 
2. ^ "Nagesh Kukunoor - Biography". http://www.reachouthyderabad.com/newsmaker/nm93.htm. Retrieved 2011-05-6. 
3. ^ "My Inspiration -Directors » Filmmakeronline.com - Sanjay Arora Independent Filmmaker". http://www.filmmakeronline.com/index.php?p=1_15_My-Inspiration-Directors. Retrieved 2009-09-23. 
4. ^ "Hyderabad Blues 2 : Box Office India". http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/boxoffice/7155/index.html. Retrieved 2009-09-23. 
5. ^ "Hyderabad Blues". http://www.southdreamz.com/portfolio/nagesh-kukunoor. Retrieved 2011-05-06. 
6. ^ Sircar, Subhra (November 14, 2002). "Desi films draw bigger crowds than foreign films". The Times of India. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/28207005.cms. Retrieved 22 September 2010. 
7. ^ Varghese, Nina (August 10, 2003). "The White formula for crossover success". The Hindu Business Line. http://www.hinduonnet.com/businessline/2003/08/11/stories/2003081100451400.htm. Retrieved 22 September 2010. 
8. ^ "Hackneyed themes, new nuances". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 2009-11-08. http://www.hindu.com/mag/2009/11/08/stories/2009110850220500.htm. 
9. ^ "Akshay plays a character close to me: Nagesh Kukunoor - Sify.com". http://sify.com/movies/fullstory.php?id=14878209&cid=2359. 
10. ^ http://www.coe.gatech.edu/content/nagesh-kukunoor-chemical-engineering-bollywood
11. ^ http://www.che.iitb.ac.in/chea/azeotropy2k8/events_nagesh.html

External links

• Nagesh Kukunoor at the Internet Movie Database
• Nagesh Kukunoor Filmography and details
• http://hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/07/28/stories/2003072800270100.htm
• http://www.cfsindia.org/in-jury.htm
• Nagesh Kukunoor's next project after Dor
• http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1218912.cms

Persondata
Name	Kukunoor, Nagesh
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1967-03-30
Place of birth	Hyderabad, India
Date of death
Place of death