Madhur Bhandarkar is an Indian film director, script writer, and producer. He made his directorial debut with Trishakti and went on to direct several critically and commercially successful films. He was born on 26 August 1968 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Madhur Bhandarkar ran a video cassette library in Khar, near Mumbai. This gave him access to a large collection of movies and he studied film-making through it. After trying his hand at production and various other stints including as assistant to film director Ashok Gaikwad Bhandarkar landed up as an assistant to Ram Gopal Varma. He even played a small role in his 1995 film Rangeela. In the same year he made a pilot episode of a tv serial 'Apne Rang Hazaar' but did not find success. A couple of years later he made his directorial debut with Trishakti which took more than two years to make and released in 1999. The film had a relatively low key cast and was largely ignored at the box office. After two years he directed Chandni Bar (2001) starring Tabu and Atul Kulkarni. The film was a critically acclaimed success, which took Bhandarkar into the top league of filmmakers in Bollywood. He received his first National Award for this film. Madhur was recently invited as the special Guest of Honour for the First International Yoga Day celebrations at the United Nations in New York on June 21. In 2016, Bhandarkar was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, by the Government of India.