Pradeep Sarkar dies: A look at the director’s decades-long career

Director-writer Pradeep Sarkar was born on April 30, 1955, in Kolkata, India. He began his career with Vinod Chopra Productions. Pradeep graduated from Delhi College of Art in 1979 with a gold medal. Before starting his career as a director and ad-filmmaker in Indian Cinema, he spent 17 years in mainstream advertising as Creative Director – Art.

His production house shot out highly successful commercials; Tata Yellow Pages, ICICI Prudential, and Onida KY Thunder to name a few. The Aaj Tak TV commercials, shot in Black and White, won him the Rapa, and the Best Director of the Year Award at the Abby’s.

Apart from commercials, Sarkar was also one of the most sought-after and prolific music video directors in the country. Shubha Mudgal’s 'Ab Ke Saawan', Euphoria’s 'Dhoom Pichak Dhoom' and 'Maaeri', Sultan Khan’s ‘Piya Basanti’ and Bhupen Hazarika’s ‘Ganga’ went on to become benchmarks of excellence in visual appeal and storytelling.

His first debut movie as a director was ‘Parineeta’ (2005) for which he won Filmfare Best Art Direction, the Zee Cine Award for Most Promising Director, the National Film Award, and the Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a Director.

His next three feature films were ‘Laaga Chunari Mein Daag’, ‘Lafangey Parindey’, and ‘Mardaani’ which were all produced by Yashraj Films. His last film, ‘Eela’, starring Kajol, was released in October 2018.

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