Neeraj Pandey

Neeraj Pandey, born in December 1973, is one of those rare Indian directors who actually gets both the critics and the box office crowd on his side—trust me, not an easy feat. His debut, A Wednesday, kinda set the bar crazy high. People couldn’t stop talking about it, and yeah, it totally scooped up awards left and right. Then he pulls out Special 26 in 2013, and boom, same story—audiences loved it, critics nodded in approval, and suddenly everyone’s calling him the guy to watch. Not just a movie guy, though—he’s got a novel under his belt too, called 'Ghalib Danger' (2013). Dude’s everywhere. And then there’s Baby in 2015, with Akshay Kumar guns blazing. Critics and fans both went wild, and it did killer business. Rustom, which he produced, hit theaters in August 2016. Critics were a bit split, but honestly, ticket sales didn’t care—it was a smash at the box office. Then, of course, he went all in with the big one: M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story. That movie had everyone emotional, especially cricket fans. Apparently, he’s got a thing for sports movies now and wants to make more of them. Neeraj’s basically built his own lane in Bollywood—he picks different stories, handles them with style, and now everyone wants a piece of his magic. His production house, Friday Filmworks, teamed up with Reliance Entertainment in 2016 to create Plan C Studios. Plus, he directed a web short, Ouch, with Manoj Bajpayee, which even got a Filmfare nomination. Oh, and he co-produced the hit Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, which everyone seemed to love. Up next? Aiyaary, with Sidharth Malhotra and Manoj Bajpayee—yeah, people are already hyped.