Deepa Mehta facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Deepa Mehta
Deepa Mehta in 2005
Born	(1950-09-15) 15 September 1950 (age 74) Amritsar, East Punjab, India
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter, film producer
Years active	1976–present
Known for	Elements Trilogy
Spouse(s)	Paul Saltzman ​ ​ (m. 1973; div. 1983)​ David Hamilton (– present)
Children	Devyani Saltzman (daughter)
Relatives	Dilip Mehta (brother)

Deepa Mehta (born 15 September 1950) is a famous Canadian film director and writer. She was born in India. She is best known for her special group of films called the Elements Trilogy. These films are Fire (1996), Earth (1998), and Water (2005).

Earth was chosen by India to be considered for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Water was chosen by Canada for the same award. This made Water only the third Canadian film not in French to be submitted for this award.

Deepa Mehta started a film company called Hamilton-Mehta Productions in 1996 with her husband, David Hamilton. She won a Genie Award in 2003 for writing the movie Bollywood/Hollywood. In 2012, she received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award. This is Canada's highest honor for people in the performing arts.

Deepa Mehta's Early Life

Deepa Mehta was born in Amritsar, Punjab, India. This area was close to the border with Pakistan. She saw the effects of the Partition of India firsthand. She learned about the difficult times from people who lived in Lahore. She said they talked a lot about it and felt it was a terrible war.

Her family later moved to New Delhi when she was a child. Her father worked as a film distributor, which means he helped movies get shown in theaters. Deepa went to Welham Girls High School, a boarding school in Dehradun. She later studied Philosophy at the Lady Shri Ram College for Women in University of Delhi.

Deepa Mehta realized her interest in films changed as she grew up. She watched many different kinds of movies. This led her to become a filmmaker. She enjoyed Indian commercial films because her father distributed them. Later, she discovered films by directors like Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. She also watched movies from other countries, including French and Japanese films.

Deepa Mehta's Career in Film

After college, Deepa Mehta worked for a company that made documentaries and educational films. While making a film about a young child bride, she met and married Canadian filmmaker Paul Saltzman. She moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1973 to live with him. In some of her early films, she was known as Deepa Saltzman.

In Canada, Deepa, Paul, and her brother Dilip started a company called Sunrise Films. They first made documentaries. Then they started making TV shows, like Spread Your Wings (1977–79). This show was about the creative work of young people. Deepa also directed several episodes of the TV drama Danger Bay (1984–90).

She directed documentaries like At 99: A Portrait of Louise Tandy Murch (1975) and Traveling Light (1986). Traveling Light was about her brother Dilip, who was a photojournalist. It was nominated for three Gemini Awards. In 1987, she co-directed Martha, Ruth and Edie, which won an award at a film festival in Italy.

In 1991, Deepa Mehta directed her first full-length movie, Sam & Me. It was about a young Indian boy and an older Jewish man in Toronto. This film had the highest budget for a movie directed by a woman in Canada at that time. It won an award at the Cannes Film Festival. After this, she directed Camilla (1994). In 2002, she directed Bollywood/Hollywood, and she won a Genie Award for writing its screenplay.

Deepa Mehta also directed two episodes of George Lucas' TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. One episode aired in 1993, and the other in 1996.

She directed several English-language films set in Canada. These include The Republic of Love (2003) and Heaven on Earth (2008). Heaven on Earth is about domestic violence and starred Preity Zinta. It was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2008, Deepa also produced The Forgotten Woman, a documentary directed by her brother Dilip.

In 2015, Deepa Mehta wrote and directed Beeba Boys. It was shown for the first time at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.

In 2020, her film Funny Boy was chosen to represent Canada at the Academy Awards. However, the film was later disqualified because it had too much English dialogue compared to other languages.

At the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021, Deepa Mehta won the Best Director award for Funny Boy. She also won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay with Shyam Selvadurai. In 2021, it was announced that Deepa Mehta would direct a film based on the novel Burnt Sugar.

The Elements Trilogy

Deepa Mehta is most famous for her Elements Trilogy. This group of three films includes Fire (1996), Earth (1998), and Water (2005). Many well-known actors worked in these films, like Aamir Khan, Seema Biswas, and John Abraham. These films are also special because Deepa Mehta worked with author Bapsi Sidhwa. Sidhwa's novel Cracking India was the basis for Mehta's film Earth.

Deepa Mehta said the idea for the Elements films came to her naturally. She first thought of Water while filming in Varanasi, India. She saw many widows there and was moved by their lives. She thought about making a film about them, but then she wrote Fire first.

After Fire, she decided her next film would be based on Bapsi Sidhwa's novel, which she called Earth. Deepa Mehta explains that each film in the trilogy focuses on important social or political ideas.

Fire tells the story of two sisters-in-law who find a deep connection with each other. When it was released, some groups in India protested because they disagreed with the film's themes. However, the film was praised by critics around the world. It won the Most Popular Canadian Film award at the Vancouver International Film Festival. This was also the first time Deepa Mehta wrote and directed a full-length movie herself.

Earth is set during the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. It shows how this historical event changed the lives of one family. The film explores what "motherland" means to people. The story was personal for Mehta because her own parents had to leave what became Pakistan in 1947. She was born close to the Indian/Pakistan border.

Water is about an eight-year-old girl who becomes a widow. According to old traditions, she is sent to live in an ashram (a spiritual retreat). The film was supposed to be shot in India, but some groups protested. They felt the film was disrespectful to Hindu culture. Because of this, the filming had to move to Sri Lanka. Water opened the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006.

Midnight's Children

Deepa Mehta directed Midnight's Children. She worked on the script with Salman Rushdie, who wrote the original novel. The film starred Satya Bhabha as Saleem Sinai, along with other actors like Shriya Saran and Shabana Azmi.

The movie was released in 2012 at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was nominated for Best Motion Picture and several other awards at the Canadian Screen Awards.

Themes in Deepa Mehta's Films

Many of Deepa Mehta's films explore her identity as someone with both Indian and Canadian backgrounds. She is known as a "transnational filmmaker" because her films often compare Indian traditions with Western ideas. This has sometimes caused controversy. For example, the filming of Water was delayed by protests. Some of her other films have also faced boycotts in India.

Her Elements trilogy often looks at how new identities are formed, especially during times of independence.

Fire shows how women can challenge old traditions. The main characters' names, Radha and Sita, come from an old Hindu story. In the film, Deepa Mehta changes their usual meanings to show how women can be strong and independent. For example, a scene where Radha's sari catches fire reminds us of a story where Sita proves her purity by walking through fire. Mehta uses this to show new meanings.

Earth is based on a novel by Bapsi Sidhwa. The main character is a young girl from a wealthy Parsi family. Parsis are a small religious group in India. Her mother explains that Parsis are "sweet but invisible" in India, like sugar in milk. This shows how her family tries to stay neutral during the difficult time of Partition. The girl's view helps show the negative effects of fear and resistance to change in society.

Water, the last film in the trilogy, shows the unfair treatment of Indian widows in earlier times. It argues for breaking old social rules and allowing Indian women to have modern identities. Some people used old religious texts to justify treating widows poorly. However, the film suggests that sticking to outdated rules is more wrong than any sin. The ending of Water gives hope for change and a better future for women in India.

Deepa Mehta often uses her films to show how political and cultural problems affect everyday people. She is curious about how these big events impact ordinary men and women.

Deepa Mehta's Personal Life

Deepa Mehta married filmmaker Paul Saltzman in India, but they divorced in 1983. They have a daughter named Devyani Saltzman, who is a writer.

Deepa Mehta is now married to producer David Hamilton. Her brother, Dilip Mehta, is a photojournalist and film director. They even wrote a film together called Cooking with Stella.

Deepa Mehta has also supported the charity Artists Against Racism.

Deepa Mehta's Legacy

Deepa Mehta is known for bringing the energy of mainstream Indian cinema together with strong political and social messages.

Filmography

Documentary Films

Narrative Films

Television Work

Awards and Honors

Deepa Mehta has won many awards for her films. Here are some of them:

She has also received special honors:

• Doctor of Laws from the University of Victoria (2009)
• Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award Winner (2009)
• Governor General's Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement (2012)
• Member of the Order of Ontario (2013)
• Officer of the Order of Canada (2013)

Images for kids

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  Deepa Mehta in 2005

See also

In Spanish: Deepa Mehta para niños

• List of female film and television directors
• South Asian Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area
• Women's cinema