Deepa Mehta came up to top ranks of artists with her epic trilogy of films named after the elements: Fire, Earth and Water. She is a film director who is concerned with the status of women. This has earned international attention with her films. She is considered by many as one of the finest new directors on the horizon. Mehta had strong ties to India even after she became a Canadian citizen. She is quickly becoming the voice of a new India.
Background
Deepa Mehta was born in Amritsar in northwestern India in 1950, but she moved with her parents to the capital city of New Delhi when she was a child. Her family spoke English at home. Mehta attended Welham Girls High School, a boarding school for girls in Dehradun and graduated from the University of Delhi with a degree in philosophy.
Education
Mehta attended Welham Girls High School, a boarding school for girls in Dehradun.
She graduated from the Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi with a degree in philosophy.
Career
After finishing her studies, Mehta made a few short documentaries for an Indian studio. She began her cinematic career writing scripts and documentaries for children's films. She also made several documentaries of her own. Deepa Mehta has never shied away from voicing her thoughts, using cinema as her medium. She has written, directed and produced movies and television shows since 1975. Her movies are outrageously honest, the most controversial of which were the Elements Trilogy: Fire, Water and Earth. Her biggest success so far was the romantic comedy Bollywood/Hollywood (2002), which was nominated for five Genie awards (including Best Picture), winning Best Original Screenplay. She also co-founded Hamilton-Mehta Productions, with her husband, producer David Hamilton in 1996.
Mehta is best known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire (1996), Earth (1998), and Water (2005), which won her much critical acclaim. Some notable actors that have worked in this trilogy are Aamir Khan, Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, John Abraham, Rahul Khanna, Lisa Ray, and Nandita Das. These films are also notable for Mehta's collaborative work with author Bapsi Sidhwa. Sidhwa's novel Cracking India, is the basis for Mehta's 1998 film, Earth. Mehta's film, Water, was later published by Sidhwa as the 2006 novel, Water: A Novel. All three films have soundtracks composed by A. R. Rahman.
Water is the story of an eight-year-old child widow who is forced to enter a house of widows for the rest of her life. The film, meant to be shot in India, was attacked by Hindu fundamentalists. Riots broke out, sets were destroyed and death threats were issued towards the actors and Mehta, forcing the film to stop production. Four years later the movie was made in Sri Lanka. Water opened the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006.