Mayur Puri

Mayur Puri is an Indian screenwriter, lyricist, actor and film-maker working in Mumbai. His film songwriting and dialogue work includes Farah Khan-directed films Om Shanti Om (2007), and Happy New Year (2014), as well as the 3D dance franchise ABCD: Any Body Can Dance and ABCD: Any Body Can Dance 2. He directed his first short film, Firdaws, in 2017.

On 17 November 2014, the library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences selected the screenplay for Happy New Year for its permanent Core Collection.

Mayur has also worked on the adaptation and translation of several U.S. films and TV shows into Hindi, including Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, The Lion King (2019), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Orange Is The New Black (2013–19), Jojo Rabbit (2019), Spies in Disguise (2019), and Locke and Key (2020).

Early life
Mayur was born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, where he completed most of his education, earning a master's degree from the University School of Languages and a one-year diploma in dramatics from the Drama Department of Gujarat College.

Career
He spent his early years writing and directing for local theatre and television, before moving from Ahmedabad to Mumbai in late 1999, where he began working as chief assistant director to Sanjay Gadhvi at Yash Raj Films. They worked on three films together: Tere Liye, Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai (2002; Mayur's first as a screenwriter), and Dhoom (2004). During his first year in Mumbai, he also wrote and starred as the lead in a Gujarati play, Amastaa Amastaa (2001).

In 2004, Mayur left Yash Raj Films to work as an independent screenwriter and lyricist. His first film as an independent was My Name is Anthony Gonsalves (2008), an adaptation of Julius Caesar. His breakthrough as a screenwriter was Om Shanti Om (2007), from which several phrases entered the film-quote lexicon.

Puri was the creative director for the animation film Jumbo (2008) produced by Percept Picture Company, and co-wrote Blue (2009), the first Indian film to be shot extensively underwater. He then wrote the script for Prince (2010), in which he also appeared in a supporting role.

In 2009, Mayur took a sabbatical from Bollywood; in 2010, he founded Story Circus, a theatre production group that creates live theatre and storytelling productions for educational institutions and other clients, and in 2011, he founded FilmGoa, a joint initiative with Goa University which provides training and job support to aspiring film-makers and facilitates film making in Goa. Mayur's next Bollywood project was Remo D'Souza's directorial debut F.A.L.T.U (2011), the script and screenplay for which he had written a few years previously.

Through his Story Circus project, Mayur reconnected with director Farah Khan, whose children were attending one of the workshops, and began working on the script for her next project Happy New Year. Around the same time, he began working with composer Pritam on songs for Race 2 (2013) and I Love New Year (2013). "Be Intehaan" from Race 2 was later ranked as the 7th most romantic song of 2013, according to a poll in The Times of India. By 2012, Mayur had returned to full-time writing, contributing additional dialogue and lyrics for Remo D'Souza's next musical ABCD: Any Body Can Dance (2013).

Happy New Year was released in 2014, with a script written by Mayur. On 17 November 2014, the library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences selected the screenplay for Happy New Year for its permanent Core Collection. He also worked on the script and song lyrics for ABCD: Any Body Can Dance 2 (2015), and provided lyrics for films including Humshakals, Entertainment (2014), Kick (2014), and All is Well (2015).

Directorial work
In 2017, Mayur directed his first short film, Firdaws, which was entered into the official selection at a number of festivals, winning a number of awards.