The renowned director Ketan Mehta is known in the Bollywood Film industry for his award winning films. He has graduated in film direction from The Film Institute of India and has six feature films, seven documentaries and many films and tele-soaps to his credit. Before venturing in the art of filmmaking he had studied Economics. With his explicit direction of comedy and satire, sylvan romance, violence and rebellion, Ketan Mehta has won himself the honor and reputation of being the "most perspective and talented representative of the rising generation of filmmakers".

The very first film of his Bhavani Bhavai won him instant critical appreciation and admiration for his remarkable work. In fact his debut film is a successful adaptation of folk idioms into cinema. Not only that his movies have also been selected for various international film festivals including the Moscow Film Festival, Nantes Film Festival in France and many more. In the international circuit his films have not only been acclaimed but also won him numerous awards over the years for Best Art Direction, Best Film, Best Jury, Best Editing and such similar categories.

The film Mirch Masala was one of his triumphant efforts for which he won the Best Film Award in Hawaii. It was also known to have been released in 52 centers all across the United States of America. He also had the honor of serving as a member of jury in various national and international film festivals. In the present times he is working on two films both set in the background of contemporary India. Among them one is an Indian romance while the other one is a murder thriller. He also did a biopic Sardar that is based on the life of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Another famous film of his is Maya Memsaab, which was based on the famous novel, Madam Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. In this film the story is narrated in flashback as a reconstruction of the life of Maya, the beautiful wife of a country doctor.

She leads a glamorous life with a series of love affairs while becoming indebted to Lalaji. The film ends tragically when her house is auctioned and she appears to be engulfed by her fantasy life. He has done both the direction and screenplay of this film. His directorial venture Mangal Pandey: The Rising is a fictionalized account of the revolt of 1857 and stars the perfectionist actor Aamir Khan in the role of Mangal Pandey. The world premiere he attended of The Rising also marks his first film in eight years. In fact the saga of one man`s rebellion against a great colonial power opened the 58th Locarno International Film Festival. Ketan Mehta was in fact basked in the enthusiastic applause that greeted the screening.

The filmography of Ketan Mehta include Bhavni Bhavai, Mirch Masala, Holi, Hero Hiralal, Maya Memsaab, Sardar, Oh Darling Yeh Hai India. He believes that cinema should hold up a mirror to the way the world is going even if the film is historical. This is certainly a common thread underlying a lot of his films and he works the way he things is apt for his films to strike a chord with the audience. In fact he has arrived on the Indian film scene where creative talent has just begun to spring and surge all over the nation. He was a prolific newcomer and showed rich promise as early as in the second film of his career which was also known to be a sardonic allegory of the terrible caste system of India. In the initial periods Ketan Mehta made films in his mother tongue Gujarati. He then branched out into Hindi filmdom.

On the other hand his films Holi and Mirch Masala was rooted in an orginal, deeply committed cinematic mind. According to him cinema is the most powerful medium of communication ever created. In the Indian subcontinent however it is the fascination in total, which influence the beliefs of the people as well as their thinking. He always likes to link his films even if they are period films to the world around them as well as in their time and experience. According to him his much-acclaimed movie `The Rising` is both a metaphor and allegory and in fact also a mirror held up to the world that they are living in today. He wanted to make this film for 17 years ago and was waiting for the moment when the idea would be realized.

According to him it was this one small rebellion, which toppled the imperial edifice of the British. He has also been fortunate enough to get the best talent for this film of his. The film has been centered on the spirit of freedom that connects the nation in many ways. It has a meaning in the traumatized world of today threatened by the events in Iraq, Iran and the free market. This film has not at all tried to retain the Indian-ness of the subject in the way it is made and then seen how best he can convey the note to the world at large. In fact there has been no conscious effort on his part to design the film with an eye to the international market. But to serve both the purpose of communicating with the national and international market the film has been shot simultaneously in Hindi and English because they wanted to avoid dubbing or subtitling.

They also attempted to blend the cinematic styles in `The Rising`. His valuable advice to any newcomer in the film industry can be summed up in the following way like he or she should be open to the world they live in and feel a concern for it. He believes that they must also learn that cinema can play a big role in the way the filmmakers live and can be handled very well. They can also resonate and influence the others. This excellent filmmaker is highly honored both nationally as well as internationally for his excellent ventures and moves on to inspire the rest of the filmmakers of the country with high aesthetical values in his projects.