Zoya Akhtar

Zoya Akhtar (born 14 October 1972) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. Born to Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani, she completed a diploma in filmmaking from NYU and assisted directors Mira Nair, Tony Gerber and Dev Benegal, before becoming an independent writer and director. She is the recipient of several accolades, including four Filmfare Awards. Akhtar, along with Reema Kagti, founded Tiger Baby Films, a film and web studio in October 2015.

She made her directorial debut with the drama Luck by Chance (2009), and achieved her breakthrough with the ensemble buddy road comedy-drama Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011), winning the Filmfare Award for Best Debut Director for the former, and the Filmfare Award for Best Director for the latter. She followed it up with co-writing the psychological crime thriller Talaash: The Answer Lies Within (2012) alongside Reema Kagti, and directing Sheila Ki Jawaani, a segment of the anthology film Bombay Talkies (2013).

Akhtar then went on to direct the ensemble family comedy-drama Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), segments in the anthology films Lust Stories (2018) and Ghost Stories (2020), and the musical drama Gully Boy (2019), winning her second Filmfare Award for Best Director for the latter, thus becoming the only female director to have won the award twice. She ventured into the OTT space with the romantic comedy-drama series Made in Heaven (2019–present) and the crime thriller series Dahaad (2023–present). In 2023, she helmed the live-action feature film adaptation of The Archies for Netflix.

She is also a board member of Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI).

Early life
Akhtar was born to poet, lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar and screenwriter Honey Irani. Akhtar's stepmother is actress Shabana Azmi. Her younger brother, Farhan Akhtar, is an actor and director. She attended Maneckji Cooper Education Trust School and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Xavier's College, both from Mumbai. Later, she joined the New York University Tisch School of the Arts to learn film production.

Her great-grandfather, Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, a scholar of Islamic studies and theology, edited the first diwan of Mirza Ghalib on his request and later became a figure during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 in his native Khairabad.

She is the great-granddaughter of Urdu poet Muztar Khairabadi and granddaughter of poet Jan Nisar Akhtar.

Akhtar grew up in an agnostic environment and along with her brother Farhan and father Javed, and does not believe in any religion.

Early work (1996–2007)
Akhtar started her career as the co-director of a music video called Price of Bullets for a rock band called Pentagram. She has worked as a casting director for films including the drama Split Wide Open (1999) and the ensemble coming-of-age comedy-drama Dil Chahta Hai (2001), and as an assistant director for her brother Farhan Akhtar's films Dil Chahta Hai and the coming-of-age war drama Lakshya (2004). She then worked as an executive producer for her longtime friend and associate Reema Kagti's comedy-drama Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007), also produced by Excel Entertainment.



Directorial debut, breakthrough and critical acclaim (2009–2013)
Akhtar made her directorial debut with the drama Luck By Chance (2009), starring her brother Farhan and Konkona Sen Sharma in lead roles. The film tells the story of a struggling actor who breaks into the industry. It opened to widespread critical acclaim from critics, with high praise directed towards its novel concept, story, screenplay and dialogues; however, the film had an underwhelming performance at the box-office. It earned Akhtar the inaugural Filmfare Award for Best Debut Director, tying for the award with Ayan Mukerji for Wake Up Sid.

In 2011, she achieved her breakthrough with the coming-of-age comedy-drama Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, which starred an ensemble cast of Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin in lead roles. The film opened to widespread critical acclaim, with praise for its novel concept, storyline and setting. It emerged as a major commercial success at the box-office, grossing ₹1.53 billion (US$19 million) worldwide, ranking as the fifth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara earned Akhtar her first Filmfare Award for Best Director.

The following year, she and Kagti co-wrote the psychological crime thriller Talaash: The Answer Lies Within (2012), starring an ensemble cast of Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Rani Mukerji, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajkummar Rao and Shernaz Patel in lead roles. The film received highly positive reviews upon release and emerged as a commercial success at the box-office.

In 2013, Akhtar teamed up with Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar for the anthology film Bombay Talkies. It was made as a celebration of 100 years of Indian cinema. Her segment titled Sheila Ki Jawaani, told the story of a 12-year-old child who idolised Hindi film actress Katrina Kaif and aspires to be a Bollywood dancer, earned her positive reviews from critics. However, the film emerged as a commercial failure at the box-office.

Continued success and career expansion (2015–present)
Akhtar next directed the ensemble family comedy-drama Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), which told the story of a dysfunctional Punjabi family. The film starred an ensemble cast, with Anil Kapoor as an egotistical industrialist, Shefali Shah as his bitter socialite-wife, and Priyanka Chopra and Ranveer Singh as their children. The film also featured Anushka Sharma and Farhan Akhtar as love interests of Singh and Chopra. The film opened to positive reviews from critics, and emerged as a commercial success at the box-office, grossing ₹1.44 billion (US$18 million) worldwide, ranking as the ninth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year.

The same year, Akhtar, along with Reema Kagti, founded Tiger Baby Films, an Indian film production company.

In 2018, she then again teamed up with Kashyap, Banerjee and Johar for the anthology film Lust Stories, the sequel to Bombay Talkies, which premiered on Netflix in June 2018. Her segment in the film, which told the story of the relationship between a bachelor (Neil Bhoopalam) and his maid (Bhumi Pednekar), received positive reviews.

In 2019, Akhtar directed the musical drama Gully Boy starring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt in lead roles. The film was loosely based on the lives of Mumbai rapper Naezy. It received positive reviews from critics upon release, and emerged as a commercial success at the box-office, grossing ₹2.38 billion (US$33.8 million) worldwide, ranking as the ninth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year. At the 65th Filmfare Awards, Gully Boy won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, the most awards for a single film in a year, breaking the previous record of Black (2005) with 11 wins. The film won Akhtar (along with Kagti) the Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay, in addition to her second Filmfare Award for Best Director, thus becoming the only female director to win the award twice.

The same year, Akhtar and Kagti created the romantic comedy-drama web series Made in Heaven, alongside Nithya Mehra, Reema Kagti and Alankrita Srivastava which told the story of two wedding planners in New Delhi. The series, which stars an ensemble cast of Arjun Mathur, Sobhita Dhulipala, Jim Sarbh, Shashank Arora, Kalki Koechlin and Shivani Raghuvanshi in lead roles, was produced by Tiger Baby Films and Excel Entertainment, and premiered on Amazon Prime Video. The first season of the series released in 2019, followed by the second season in 2023, after several delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The series received widespread critical acclaim, with high praise for its dark take on the Big Fat Indian Wedding.

She was also invited to be a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In 2020, she reteamed with Kashyap, Banerjee and Johar for the horror anthology film Ghost Stories, the sequel to Lust Stories. Ghost Stories premiered on Netflix on 1 January 2020. Her segment in the film told the story of an ailing bedridden elderly lady (Surekha Sikri) and her nurse (Janhvi Kapoor). Unlike its predecessors, it received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics upon release.

In 2023, she and Kagti co-created the crime thriller web series Dahaad starring Sonakshi Sinha, Gulshan Devaiah, Vijay Varma and Sohum Shah in lead roles. The series premiered on Amazon Prime Video and received positive reviews from critics upon release. It also became the first ever Indian web series to premiere at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival, where it will compete for the Berlinale Series Award.

Akhtar next directed the live-action feature film adaptation of The Archies which released on Netflix. The film stars debutants Agastya Nanda, Khushi Kapoor, Suhana Khan, Vedang Raina, Mihir Ahuja, Aditi Saigal and Yuvraj Menda as Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle, Jughead Jones, Ethel Muggs and Dilton Doiley respectively. It opened to mixed reviews from critics upon release.

She next collaborated with Kagti, Arjun Varain Singh and Yash Sahai to write the romantic drama Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, directed by Singh and starring Adarsh Gourav, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday and Rohan Gurbaxani in lead roles.  The film, which tells the story of three friends, is scheduled to release on 16 February 2024.

Other appearances
She appeared on the Valentine's Day charity show of Kaun Banega Crorepati along with her brother Farhan Akhtar. She also appeared in a very brief role as Rasa Devi's (Rekha's) courtesan in Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love in September 1996. She and Shah Rukh Khan had a 'fireside chat' with Jeff Bezos of Amazon in January 2020.