Tinnu Anand, also known as Tinu Anand or Virender Raj Anand, is an actor and director from Bollywood. He is best known for casting Amitabh Bachchan in most of his films. Some of these include Major Saab, Main Azad Hoon, Shahenshah and Kaalia. He has also worked as an assistant to legendary director Satyajit Ray in several of his Bengali films.
Early Life of Tinnu Anand
He was born on May 4, 1953. He is the son of veteran writer Inder Raj Anand and uncle of director Siddharth Anand. He received his graduation degree from Mayo College, Ajmer.
Directorial Career of Tinnu Anand
Anand was always interested in film direction so he started training as an assistant director under the patronage of Satyajit Ray. He has worked in a number of Bengali films as an assistant to Ray. He has also directed several Bollywood movies featuring mostly Amitabh Bachchan in prominent roles.
His first Hindi movie as a director was Kaalia in 1981, which was above average hit. The film starred Amitabh Bachchan (in the title role), Parveen Babi, Asha Parekh, Kader Khan, Pran, Amjad Khan, K.N. Singh and Jagdeep. Next, he made Shahenshah in 1988 which starred Amitabh Bachchan and Meenakshi Sheshadri in prominent roles. The story of the film was written by Amitabh Bachchan`s wife Jaya Bachchan. It became a blockbuster upon its release.
In 1989, he made Main Azaad Hoon, an Indian adaptation of 1941 Frank Capra film, Meet John Doe by Javed Akhtar. The film featured Amitabh Bachchan and Shabana Azmi in lead roles. It won the Filmfare Award for Best Dialogue for Javed Akhtar. In 1991, he made the musical romantic film Jeena Teri Gali Mein starring Suraj, Kavita Kapoor, Amita Nangia, Archana Puran Singh and Kunika. Next he made Major Saab in 1998, which starred Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgan, Sonali Bendre and Ashish Vidhyarthi. It was a moderate success at the box office.
Acting Career of Tinnu Anand
Anand has acted in a number of Indian films. In 1987, he signed up for Singeetham Srinivasa Rao"s black comedy "Pushpaka Vimana" where he was cast alongside Loknath, Prathap Pothan, K S Ramesh, P. L. Narayana, Farida Jalal, Amala and Kamal Haasan. In the same year, he acted in the Tamil crime film Nayagan, written and directed by Mani Ratnam. After this, he went on to appear in a number of films some of which are Agneepath (1990), Aditya 369 (1991), Krishan Avtaar (1993), Chandra Mukhi (1993), Krishna (1996), Kaalapani (1996), Diljale (1996), Masoom (1996), Miss 420 (1998), China Gate (1998), Lajja (2001), Bluffmaster! (2005), Ghajini (2008), Dabangg (2010) and Phata Poster Nikhla Hero (2013) etc.
