Apurva Asrani

Early career

Apurva began his career in 1995 as an assistant on the popular Bollywood countdown show Bpl Oye! on Channel [V]. At 19 he became a film editor on the film Satya, directed by Ram Gopal Varma. His frenetic narrative device was celebrated by critics and audiences alike. He then went on to edit Sunhil Sippy's bilingual comedy Snip!

Apurva's other work includes the gang war film Chhal directed by Hansal Mehta. Critic Subhash K Jha wrote in his review 'The real hero of Chhal is Apurva Asrani's editing'. Apurva edited Anupam Kher's directorial debut Om Jai Jagadish. He also collaborated with Nagesh Kukunoor on his Akshay Kumar starrer Tasveer 8x10 as supervising editor and as film editor on Aashayein, starring John Abraham.

In 2005, Apurva directed the music videos of Sony Music India's album Tera Mera Pyar that launched actresss Nimrat Kaur. The title track, "Tera Mera Pyar", was sung by Kumar Sanu; "Yeh Kya Hua" was sung by Shreya Ghosal and composed by UK-based artists Partners in Rhyme. Tera Mera Pyar won album of the year at the Sahara Music Awards in San Francisco.

In March 2006, Apurva represented India in Editing Fashion, a multimedia experiment for UK-based showstudio.com. Apurva's short film Imperfect Moon was showcased along with the film of British director, Mike Figgis.

On the UK stage, Apurva has collaborated with a British theatre company RIFCO Arts to write dialogue for three successful UK touring productions: Bollywood: Yet Another Love Story (2000/2003), The Deranged Marriage (2006) and There’s Something About Simmy (2007).

He is also the editor and additional screenplay writer of the film Shahid.

Awards

Apurva shared the Filmfare Award for Best Editing with Bhanodaya for their edit of Satya at the Filmfare Awards held in 1999.

In 2001, Apurva won the National Film Award for Best Editing for Snip!, a bilingual comedy directed by Sunhil Sippy. The National Awards citation read, "For creating an evocative rhythm enhancing the pace of the narrative while aesthetically maintaining the unit of form and content."

He was also nominated for a Zee Cine Award for his edit of Hansal Mehta's Chhal in 2001.

In 2013 Apurva won the Life Ok Screen Award for Best Screenplay for Shahid which he shared with director Hansal Mehta.

In 2017, Apurva was nominated for 'Best Editing' & 'Best Original Screenplay' for Aligarh at the South African International Film Festival, also known as the RapidLion Awards.

Shahid

Apurva edited Hansal Mehta's Shahid (2012) that was produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur & UTV. The film is based on the true story of slain lawyer Shahid Azmi who fought several pro-bono cases in India. Shahid world-premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 9th September 2012 and went on to win the 'Silver Prize' at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MAMI). Director Hansal Mehta had this to say about Apurva's contribution to the film – 'Apurva, besides editing the film also shaped the narrative into a seamless, linear progression for which I have credited him for screenplay. If the film communicates a compelling story a lot of credit for it goes to Apu'.

Citylights

In 2014, Apurva edited Fox Star Studios & Vishesh Films Citylights starring Rajkummar Rao & Manav Kaul. The film received glowing reviews from leading critics.

Rahul Desai in his Mumbai Mirror review of Citylights said: Mehta and writer-editor Asrani pull off a rare feat here. They not only choose the right film to adapt-based solely on its theme and universal topicality-but build upon the original, without being overambitious.

Children Of War, Dharam Sankat Mein, Waiting

In 2014, Apurva also edited Mrityunjay Devvrat's Children of War (formerly titled 'The Bastard Child'), a stark portrayal of the Bangladesh genocide of 1971. The film ran for a record breaking 12 weeks in Bangladesh and is the only foreign produced film in history to have won a Bangladeshi National Award.

In 2015, Apurva edited Viacom 18's 'Dharam Sankat Mein', an adaptation of the British hit The Infidel.

In 2016, Apurva co-edited Waiting produced by Manish Mundra, directed by Anu Menon. The film starring Naseeruddin Shah & Kalki Koechlin received extremely positive reviews.

Aligarh

In 2016, Apurva made his debut as a full-fledged screenwriter by writing the story, screenplay and dialogues of Aligarh a human rights biopic.

The film premiered at the Busan International Film Festival and had its UK premiere at the London Film Festival. It also enjoyed the rare honour of being the first Indian film to open the Jio MAMI (Mumbai Film Festival) in 16 years.

The film was among the best reviewed films of the year. Shubhra Gupta in her Indian Express review of the film wrote 'Like in ‘Shahid’, Hansal Mehta and scriptwriter Apurva Asrani have come up with a lead character and a film which shines with authenticity and emotional heft, and which leaves you thinking.'

Anupama Chopra in her Hindustan Times review of the film wrote 'Hansal and writer Apurva Asrani have mined from real events but their dramatisation of Siras’ tragedy isn’t shrill or militant.' Stutee Ghosh in her review in The Quint wrote 'Aligarh is an assiduously made piece of brilliance.'

Apurva was also the editor of the film.

Simran

Apurva has written the story, screenplay and dialogues of Simran, an upcoming film that stars Kangana Ranuat in the titular role. The film was in the news recently for a controversy regarding sharing of writing credits between Kangana & Apurva.

Apurva is rumoured to have begun work on his directorial debut, which he is also said to have scripted.