Leena Yadav

Leena Yadav
Born (1971-01-06) 6 January 1971 (age 53)
NationalityIndian
Occupation(s)Film director, producer, editor and screenwriter
SpouseAseem Bajaj
RelativesRam Gopal Bajaj (father-in-law)

Leena Yadav (born 6 January 1971) is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. She started her career in the television industry and gradually moved on to making feature films. Her first international feature film, Parched, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015.[1][2]

Early life and education

Born to an Indian Army general in Madhya Pradesh, she graduated with Economics honours from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi. She did Mass Communications from Sophia College, Mumbai.[2][3][4]

Personal life

She is married to Aseem Bajaj (son of Ram Gopal Bajaj and maternal grandson of Khemchand Prakash), who is an Indian cinematographer and film producer well known for his poetic imagery on films like Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Shabd, Teen Patti, U Me Aur Hum and Chameli to name a few. She met Aseem while directing her first TV show This Week That Year.[3]

Filmography

Having captivated by the job of Film editing, while she was working with a diploma in Mass Communications background, she learned Film editing. Without working as an assistant to anyone, she learned about direction and script writing from editing itself. While working as an editor for 'ad films' – corporate shows – and television serials, she got an offer to direct a Television (TV) show This Week That Year for Star Movies. With success, she floated her own production house with Nikhil Kapoor to produce and direct shows for Star Bestsellers.[1][2][3][5]

As a TV director, she directed both fiction and non-fiction for almost 12 years; some of the TV shows that she directed included singular episodes for Star Bestsellers, Say Na Something to Anupam Uncle, Sanjeevani, and many more.[1]

As a mainstream film director, Shabd was her directorial debut with unconventional storyline, released in 2005. Teen Patti was her second film after a gap of five years.[6] Parched is the latest movie directed by her, starring Tannishtha Chatterjee, Radhika Apte, Surveen Chawla and Adil Hussain playing lead roles.[7][8]

As director

Films

Year Film Director Writer Producer Editor Note
2000 Dead End Yes Yes Yes Yes TV movie; also Composer [4]
2005 Shabd Yes Yes No Yes
2009 Thank You for Now No No No Yes Short film
2010 Teen Patti Yes Yes No No
2015 Parched Yes Yes Yes No
2018 Rajma Chawal Yes Yes Yes No
TV show
  • This Week That Year – for Star Movies.
  • Say Na Something to Anupam Uncle.
  • Sanjeevani.
  • Goonj – for Sony TV.
  • Kahin Na Kahi Koi Ha – a match-making show with Madhuri Dixit.
  • Temptation Island.
  • Dead End.
  • Khauf[1][2][5]
Documentary

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Playing Teen Patti with Leena Yadav". starboxoffice.com. Archived from the original on 6 June 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2012. Editing intrigued, so I learnt it. I have never assisted anybody, so I have learnt everything about direction and writing from editing. While I was editing, I got the offer to direct something for television, post which I directed fiction and non-fiction shows on TV for 12 years
  2. ^ a b c d "Indiantelevision.com's Interview with TV director Leena Yadav". indiantelevision.com. 20 August 2002. Retrieved 18 April 2012. The lady who started her career in television as an editor and graduated to direction with the Star Movies' show This Week That Year has come a long way. After the Nikhil Kapoor anchored show, Yadav floated her own production house with Kapoor and produced one-off stories for Star Bestsellers, which she also directed.
  3. ^ a b c "Meet the woman behind Shabd". rediff.com. 1 February 2005. Retrieved 19 April 2012. Born in Madhya Pradesh [ Images ], Leena was brought up 'all over India [ Images ],' thanks to her armyman father – I met my husband through work. My first directorial venture was This Week That Year, which was also Aseem's first show. After that, we got married.
  4. ^ a b "Leena Yadav – Director, editor, and writer". imdb.com. Retrieved 17 April 2012. Born: January 6, 1971 in India
  5. ^ a b "Leena Yadav – Film director". scmsophia.com. 13 January 2012. Archived from the original on 2 February 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2012. Leena Yadav conducts workshops on cinema. She is an experienced television and film professional, and has worked on ad films, corporate videos and television shows. She has directed television shows such as This Week That Year, Sanjeevani, Kahi na Kahi Koi Hai, Goonj and Khauf.
  6. ^ "No film without Big B says Leena Yadav". The Times of India. 23 January 2010. Archived from the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 19 April 2012. Leena Yadav's directorial debut Shabd had an unconventional storyline and an even more unexpected cast – Sanjay Dutt, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Zayed Khan. With her second directorial venture, she's made even more interesting permutations and combinations in her casting.
  7. ^ "Oscar Winner Russell Carpenter to Lens U.S.-India Co-Production 'Parched' (Exclusive)". Hollywood Reporter. 11 February 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  8. ^ "Getting threats over Parched, says director Leena Yadav". The Indian Express. 27 September 2016. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  9. ^ "Netflix India Unveils 4 Documentary Films and TV Series". NDTV Gadgets 360. Retrieved 12 April 2021.