Ritesh Shah Explained

Ritesh Shah
Birth Place:Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Alma Mater:Hindu College (1993-1996),Jamia Millia Islamia
Occupation:Screenwriter
Years Active:1997
Awards:Zee Cine Award for Dialogue for Pink in 2017

Ritesh Shah is an Indian screenwriter who works in Hindi films. He has written the screenplay and dialogues for films like Kahaani (2012),[1] Pink (2016),[2] Airlift (2017) and Raid (2018). He won the Filmfare award, Star Screen Award and Zee Cine Award in the Best Dialogue category for Pink.[3] [4]

Early life and education

Shah was born in Anantnag, in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, into a Kashmiri family. His family was forced to migrate to Delhi during their exodus in the summer of 1990.[5] He did his Bachelors in English Literature from Hindu College (1993-1996) and has done his Masters in Mass Communications from MCRC, Jamia Milia Islamia. He began his career as a playwright with Act One Art Group, New Delhi. His works include the fringe award winner Othello - A play in black and white. Ritesh switched to television in 1999. His television writing credits include Josh, Kashmeer, Krishna Arjun and the award-winning series Kagaar.

Career

Ritesh started his career as a playwright in Delhi. He adopted Sławomir Mrożek's political black comedy which pulled the attention of the Indian film industry. One of the actors in the play suggested him to shift the base to Mumbai where Ritesh started writing from the TV serial Kagaar. His first film as a writer was Sujoy Ghosh's Home Delivery. Anurag Kashyap recommended him to Vipul Shah for writing the dialogues of 2007 film Namastey London. He has also adopted 2013 film B.A. Pass from a short story "The Railway Aunty" written by Mohan Sikka. Initially he was planning to turn three stories into a film from a short story collection titled Delhi Noir. Then he wrote a screenplay of 45 pages based on "The Railway Aunty" and presented it to the director Ajay Bahl who liked the script and went ahead making it a film.[6] He has also done a cameo role in Pink.[7] [8]

Awards and nominations

!Year!Award!Category!Outcome!Work
2017Filmfare AwardsBest DialogueWonPink
2014Best Screenplay (Shared with Nikkhil Advani, Suresh Nair, Niranjan Iyengar)NominatedD-Day
2017Screen AwardsBest DialogueWonPink
2014Zee Cine AwardsBest Screenplay (Shared with Nikkhil Advani, Suresh Nair, Niranjan Iyengar)NominatedD-Day
2017IIFA AwardsBest ScreenplayWonPink
Best DialogueWon

Filmography

Title Year Story Screenplay Dialogue
Home Delivery 2005
Namastey London 2007
Summer 2007 2007
Aladin 2009
Action Replayy 2010
Force 2011
Kahaani 2012
B.A. Pass 2013
2013
D-Day 2013
CityLights 2014
Lai Bhaari 2014
Airlift 2016
Rocky Handsome 2016
Te3n 2016
Madaari 2016
Pink 2016
2016
2017
Daddy 2017
Chef 2017
Anukul 2017
Raid 2018
Namaste England 2018
Junglee 2019
Arjun Patiala 2019
Batla House 2019
The Big Bull[9] 2021
Sardar Udham 2021
Dhaakad 2022
Faraaz 2023
Lost 2023
Kadak Singh 2023

Notes and References

  1. News: Iyer . Sanyukta . Tucks and treats with Ajay Devgn in Lucknow . 16 September 2023 . Mumbai Mirror . 2 October 2017.
  2. Maitra . Adila . #NoMeansNo: Now, a book on Pink, the movie that changed lives . 16 September 2023 . India Today . 1 October 2017 . en.
  3. News: 62nd Filmfare Awards 2017: Complete winners' list . 16 September 2023 . The Times of India . 29 January 2017.
  4. Star Screen Awards 2016 winners list: Pink wins big, Big B-Alia get best actor and actress award . 16 September 2023 . India Today . 5 December 2016 . en.
  5. News: Writing is a lonely, thankless job: Ritesh Shah . . 3 June 2018 . 16 September 2023 .
  6. News: Ghosh . Devarsi . Ritesh Shah on the success of 'Raid' and writing for Bollywood: 'Ghosts don't scare me, people do' . 16 September 2023 . Scroll . 25 March 2018.
  7. News: Bhanot . Saurav . Meet Ritesh Shah, The Man Behind The Powerful Dialogues Of Pink . 16 September 2023 . ScoopWhoop . 27 September 2016.
  8. News: Saxena . Deep . Pink 'air-lifted' this Kahaani writer's career . 16 September 2023 . Hindustan Times . 3 October 2017.
  9. News: Ajay Devgn announces film on Ramsay family: A fascinating journey of hardships . 7 November 2019 . India Today . IANS . 27 February 2020.