Devashish Makhija

Early life

Born and brought up in Park Circus, Devashish spent the first 24 years of his life in Kolkata. He completed his schooling at Don Bosco High School and pursued a degree in Economics at St. Xavier’s College. Following a brief stint in advertising with McCann Erickson and Mudra Kolkata after his graduation, Devashish arrived in Mumbai to pursue filmmaking.

Career

Devashish Makhija began his career in the Indian film industry as a researcher and assistant director on the critically acclaimed film Black Friday in 2007, the feature-film directorial debut of Anurag Kashyap. In the following year, he was also the chief assistant director to Shaad Ali on the blockbuster Bunty Aur Babli. Since then, he has written numerous screenplays, notably Avik Mukherjee's Bhoomi in the year 2008 and Anurag Kashyap's upcoming superhero project Doga. In addition to writing its story, screenplay and dialogue, Devashish made his feature-film directorial debut with the highly appreciated Hindi-Oriya film Oonga in 2013, starring Nandita Das, Seema Biswas, Salim Kumar and Raju Singh (as Oonga). Oonga made its world premiere at the New York Indian Film Festival on 3 May 2013 and was screened in the 'India Gold' competition section at the 15th Mumbai Film Festival, the 13th River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival and the Indian Film Festival at Melbourne in 2014. Oonga was also a part of the international competition at the International Film Festival of Kerala in 2014.

He has written and directed two acclaimed short films, Rahim Murge Pe Mat Ro, starring Piyush Mishra as the voice of Rahim Murga in 2008, followed by the film El'ayichi in 2015, starring Nimrat Kaur and Divyendu Sharma, which was chosen among the 5 short films exclusively screened at the 1st edition of the 'Terribly Tiny Talkies' initiative. He has also written and directed the short film Absent in 2015, starring Vikas Kumar which was produced by 'Pocket Films' and had an official selection at International Film Festival of South Asia (IFFSA), Toronto, Canada and New York Indian Film Festival

Apart from writing and directing films, he also made his debut as a graphic-poet in 2008 with Occupying Silence, a book of graphic verse. He has authored Tulika Publishers' bestselling children's books When Ali became Bajrangbali and Why Paploo was Perplexed. By Two, a crime noir story written by him, was featured in the omnibus Mumbai Noir which Akashic Books published in 2012 as part of their award-winning international Noir series. In early-2015, HarperCollins published a collection of 49 short stories written by Devashish across a variety of genres in the acclaimed anthology Forgetting.

Reviews of his work

Of By Two, Kankana Basu of The Hindu said "'By Two' by Devashish Makhija, where the fates of twin brothers, Rahim and Rahman, resonate with the paradoxical nature of life in the teeming metropolis. The unique place of the humble auto-rickshaw in the bigger scheme of things could not have been driven home more exquisitely, as in this story". Aditi Seshadri wrote for the DNA, "..the stories that stand out are the ones that have the most authentic voice (like) ‘By Two’ by Devashish Makhija, a gritty story about twin auto-rickshaw drivers and what they do to survive in Mumbai." About his anthology Forgetting, one review said, "Infused with every aspect of emotion, big and small, this book is a complete eye opener that throws light on the reality of human lives that we sometimes tend to ignore." His debut as a graphic-poet with Occupying Silence was celebrated as "Brave and fresh", to quote Aparna Sen from the Indian Express.

Among the positive reviews his award-winning short film Rahim Murge Pe Mat Ro received, Kishore Budha from the Wide Screen Journal said, "Rahim Murge Pe Mat Ro is a fast, witty short with a great voiceover. And there's a message on animal welfare somewhere in there. A lesson in short filmmaking."