Ritesh Shah is an Indian screenwriter who works in Hindi films. He has written the screenplay and dialogues for films like Kahaani (2012),[1] Pink (2016),[2] Airlift (2017) and Raid (2018). He won the Filmfare award, Star Screen Award and Zee Cine Award in the Best Dialogue category for Pink.[3][4][5]

Ritesh Shah
Ritesh Shah
Born
Alma materHindu College (1993-1996),Jamia Millia Islamia
OccupationScreenwriter
Years active1997
AwardsZee Cine Award for Dialogue for Pink in 2017

Early life and education

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Shah was born in Anantnag, in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, into a Kashmiri family. His family was forced to migrate to Delhi during their exodus in the summer of 1990.[6] He did his Bachelors in English Literature from Hindu College (1993-1996) and has done his Masters in Mass Communications from MCRC, Jamia Milia Islamia. He began his career as a playwright with Act One Art Group, New Delhi. His works include the fringe award winner Othello - A play in black and white. Ritesh switched to television in 1999. His television writing credits include Josh, Kashmeer, Krishna Arjun and the award-winning series Kagaar.

Career

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Ritesh started his career as a playwright in Delhi. He adopted Sławomir Mrożek's political black comedy which pulled the attention of the Indian film industry. One of the actors in the play suggested him to shift the base to Mumbai where Ritesh started writing from the TV serial Kagaar. His first film as a writer was Sujoy Ghosh's Home Delivery. Anurag Kashyap recommended him to Vipul Shah for writing the dialogues of 2007 film Namastey London. He has also adopted 2013 film B.A. Pass from a short story "The Railway Aunty" written by Mohan Sikka. Initially he was planning to turn three stories into a film from a short story collection titled Delhi Noir. Then he wrote a screenplay of 45 pages based on "The Railway Aunty" and presented it to the director Ajay Bahl who liked the script and went ahead making it a film.[7] He has also done a cameo role in Pink.[8][9]

Awards and nominations

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YearAwardCategoryOutcomeWork
2017Filmfare AwardsBest DialogueWonPink
2014Best Screenplay (Shared with Nikkhil Advani, Suresh Nair, Niranjan Iyengar)NominatedD-Day
2017Screen AwardsBest DialogueWonPink
2014Zee Cine AwardsBest Screenplay (Shared with Nikkhil Advani, Suresh Nair, Niranjan Iyengar)NominatedD-Day
2017IIFA AwardsBest ScreenplayWonPink
Best DialogueWon

Filmography

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TitleYearStoryScreenplayDialogue
Home Delivery2005Yes
Namastey London2007Yes
Summer 20072007Yes
Aladin2009YesYes
Action Replayy2010Yes
Force2011YesYesYes
Kahaani2012Yes
B.A. Pass2013YesYesYes
Commando: A One Man Army2013YesYesYes
D-Day2013YesYesYes
CityLights2014YesYesYes
Lai Bhaari2014Yes
Airlift2016YesYes
Rocky Handsome2016YesYesYes
Te3n2016Yes
Madaari2016YesYes
Pink2016YesYesYes
Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh2016Yes
Commando 2: The Black Money Trail2017YesYes
Daddy2017Yes
Chef2017YesYesYes
Anukul2017Yes
Raid2018YesYesYes
Namaste England2018Yes
Junglee2019Yes
Arjun Patiala2019YesYesYes
Batla House2019YesYesYes
The Big Bull[10]2021Yes
Sardar Udham2021YesYes
Dhaakad2022Yes
Faraaz2023Yes
Lost2023Yes
Kadak Singh2023YesYesYes

References

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