Rajat Kapoor

"I see my life as a series of accidents. It started rather early- with my birth in 1961." -Rajat Kapoor

Crediting his life to accidents, winner of two National Awards and a President's Gold Medal, Rajat Kapoor is one of the few contemporary radical film makers of India.

His first film, Tarana, a 26 minute non-feature documentary, won him the Swarna Kamal (President's gold medal) and also won for best cinematography at the National Awards. His first feature film, Private Detective- Two plus two plus one, came in 1997. It went to international film festivals and Rajat became a film maker to reckon with. Hypnothesis(1998), Rajat's next, was a short film which again got him a National Award. Three short films later, his next feature film, Raghu Romeo (2003) got him into the star directors' status and not so long after, he came up with Mixed Doubles (2006).

He has 25 years experience in theater and has translated Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett and Jean Genet. Being an intelligent director himself he understands the nuances of acting and has delivered fine performances in films ranging from Monsoon Wedding and Dil Chahta Hai to Bheja Fry and Khoya Khoya Chand.

"Another accident - I acted in an advertisement.. Then another, and another - and before I knew it, I was a model and soon- a television actor and then a film actor. I enjoyed every moment of it- I love acting, it is the best job in the world, totally stress free."

Other than being a director, an actor and a writer he's also an accidental (as he would call it) Film Producer.

"Almost everything was an accident, except one. I knew very early on, by the time I was 14 or 15 that I was going to make films. I did not how, but I was sure that one day I would direct films.

"Finally I am a practicing filmmaker. I look back at the first forty four years of life with gratitude for all the beauty that was given to me- and I look forward to many more beautiful accidents in the next 44 years of my life."