Raj Kumar Gupta

Raj Kumar Gupta—now there’s a guy who doesn’t stick to the usual Bollywood blueprint. He kicked things off with Aamir back in 2008, a gritty, low-budget thriller that turned all eyes on him. The movie, shot guerrilla-style on the streets of Mumbai, kind of exploded, getting him a bunch of nominations for Best Debut Director. After that, he wrote Barah Aana, then dropped No One Killed Jessica—a film that smacked audiences right in the gut with the real-life Jessica Lal murder case. Rani Mukerji and Vidya Balan totally owned their roles, and the movie raked in nominations for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Not bad, huh? Gupta clearly hates playing it safe. In 2013, he rolled out Ghanchakkar, a wild, offbeat comedy-thriller starring Emraan Hashmi and Vidya Balan. Critics and fans were split, but hey, at least he wasn’t boring. Moving on, he jumped into producing with the short film Aaba, which hit the Berlin Film Festival and even bagged some serious awards, including a National Award. Raid came next—a tense, Ajay Devgn-led drama about one of India’s biggest tax raids. People loved it, and the movie smashed its way into the 100 Crore Club. Then came India’s Most Wanted, another true-story thriller, and now Gupta’s entering the web series game with Pill, a hard-hitting look at the mess behind the pharma industry, starring Riteish Deshmukh. He’s also gearing up for Raid 2. The guy’s always cooking up something new—never dull, always gutsy, and definitely not afraid to shake up the scene.