Shekhar Kapur: Biography

One of the few Bollywood directors to make a career in the U.S., Shekhar Kapur has proved his filmmaking worth in both countries. The nephew of actors Vijay Anand and Dev Anand, Kapur was discouraged to get into show business by his father. Leaving his homeland to study business in Great Britain, Kapur soon grew bored with his accounting job and moved back to India to become an unsuccessful actor in Bollywood. He finally found a place for himself as a director with his film debut, the coming-of-age story Masoom (1983). He was met with both international attention and controversy after the release of Bandit Queen (1994), his biographical portrait of lower-caste Indian outlaw Phoolan Devi. Although the Indian censors and Devi herself protested to the film's graphic content, it proved to be a commercial success. Kapur began working in Hollywood to make the historical biography Elizabeth, with Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I, in 1998. Nominated for the Best Picture Academy award, it also gained him more attention among Indian censors. After residing back in India for a few years, he returned to the U.S. to make the 2002 film adaptation of The Four Feathers. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide