Apoorva Lakhia is a prominent Hindi film director who has been associated with a number of popular Bollywood flicks. He has also authored the script for some of his movies. Prior to joining the Hindi film industry Apoorva Lakhia worked in Hollywood and assisted in a few flicks. This very experience helped him to associate with the movie Lagaan which paved his way for pursuing a career as a director.
Early Life of Apoorva Lakhia
Apoorva Lakhia was born in the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat. He was brought up in the same city and completed his schooling from Lawrence School, Sanawar. He attended the New York University for studying filmmaking but dropped the course midway for assisting Mira Nair on the film The Perez Family. He has also assisted in some Hollywood flicks such as Addicted to Love, A Perfect Murder and The Ice Storm.
Career of Apoorva Lakhia
Apoorva Lakhia had his tryst with the entertainment world as an assistant director for Ashutosh Gowariker`s period epic film Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India in 2001. For the movie, Aamir Khan was in search of someone who had an experience with Hollywood and thus Apoorva Lakhia, who had previously worked with the cast and crews in Hollywood, was chosen on the recommendation of Farhan Akhtar.
However before this, he had also worked as a second assistant director in the year 1996 for the movie Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. He made his directional debut in 2002 with the Bollywood flick Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost starring Abhishek Bachchan and Lara Dutta. His second venture Ek Ajnabee was in 2005 which featured Amitabh Bachchan and Arjun Rampal in the lead roles. The film was a remake of the Hollywood film Man on Fire. Shootout at Lokhandwala was his third release which has a multi-star cast. Released in the year 2007, the movie depicted real-life events involving underworld gangsters. In the same year Apoorva Lakhia also directed a short story titled Sex on the Beach for the anthology film Dus Kahaniyaan.
Apoorva Lakhia directed Mission Istanbul in 2008 featuring Vivek Oberoi, Suniel Shetty and Zayed Khan. The film witnessed the collaboration of North American producer Vikas Kohli of Fatlabs studio and Mika Singh for the first time for its soundtrack. Lakhia also penned the story of the 2009 film Hide and Seek which was directed by Shawn Aranha. He also appeared in a cameo role as an antagonist in the film Knock Out starring Sanjay Dutt and Irrfan Khan. In the year 2013, he directed the remake of the Bollywood blockbuster Zanjeer starring Telugu actor Ram Charan. He also directed the Telugu movie Thoofan in 2013. Apoorva Lakhia also wrote the story for the films Ek Ajnabee, Shootout at Lokhandwala and Dus Kahaniyaan.
Filmography of Apoorva Lakhia
| Year | Film |
| 2003 | Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost |
| 2005 | Ek Ajnabee |
| 2007 | Shootout at Lokhandwala |
| 2007 | Dus Kahaniyaan |
| 2008 | Mission Istaanbul |
| 2013 | Zanjeer |
| 2013 | Thoofan (Telugu) |
