subject: Pradeep Sarkar - Bollywood Director [print this page] Pradeep sarkar was born and brought up in kolkata. He graduated from the delhi college of arts and straightaway got into the field of advertising. He spent many years in advertising, mostly at contract advertising in delhi, been a writer, creative director and was responsible for ads like cadbury (pappu paas ho gaya), coke, horlicks, etc.
Many of his ad films were greatly appreciated and have bagged many prestigious advertising awards.
Sarkar also directed several music videos, a few of which featured actress vidya balan. Once, when he was in delhi, he got a call from veteran filmmaker vidhu vinod chopra. Incidentally, chopra had happened to see a few of those music videos and hence wanted to meet sarkar.
Sarkar, after meeting chopra, bagged the role of directing three songs for chopra hrithik roshansanjay dutt starrer mission kashmir (2000) bhumro, rind posh maal and socho ke jheelon ka.After about a year and a half, sarkar was shooting an ad at dhobi ghat in mumbai.
Coincidentally, vidhu vinod chopra munnabhai mbbs (2003) was been shot adjacently. Chopra came to sarkar sets, and thus their friendship was revived. Chopra offered the song chan chan from the film to sarkar. Sarkar also coedited munnabhai mbbs with rajkumar hirani.
That was the time when sarkar wanted to get into bollywood; to look up to someone. And that where chopra became the mentor of sarkar. Sarkar finally got to take the leap into bollywood. Pradeep sarkar made his directorial debut with the film parineeta (2005), produced by vidhu vinod chopra, starring saif ali khan, sanjay dutt, vidya balan and diya mirza.
Parineeta was an adaptation of sarat chandra chattopadhyay 1914 bengali novella of the same name. The film primarily revolved around the lead characters, lolita (vidya) and shekhar (saif) whose childhood friendship blossoms into love.
When a series of misunderstandings (all schemed by shekhars father) form obstacles in their bond, they separate. But, shekhar, eventually, gets back to his love.Parineeta was critically and commercially successful. The film was nominated for several awards at many prestigious award ceremonies including the best film.
Pradeep sarkar won the filmfare award for best art direction his forte.Pradeep sarkar next was laaga chunari mein daag (2007) which was produced under the banner yash raj films.
Starring rani mukherjee, konkona sen sharma and kunal kapoor in the lead; rani plays a call girl who struggles in the big city of mumbai in order to earn for her poor family living in varanasi. The film failed to do well commercially as well as critically.Sarkar also worked as a visual director on vidhu vinod chopra eklavya: the royal guard (2007).
Sarkar continued his stint under the yash raj films with the film lafangey parindey (2010). His third directorial, this, featured neil nitin mukesh and deepika padukone in the lead.
A love story of two completely different individuals neil, a street fighter and deepika, a blind dancer on skates set amidst the gritty streets of mumbai. Lafangey parindey couldnt really create many ripples at the boxoffice and was received with lackluster reviews.
Pradeep sarkar wife works as a production controller in bollywood. Ronit sarkar, his son, recently sung the title song of lafangey parindey.Pradeep sarkar is fondly called as dada on the sets.
