Rajkumar Santoshi

Some Lesser Known Facts About Rajkumar Santoshi

• Rajkumar Santoshi was born in Chennai and moved to Mumbai with his parents at the age of five.

• He is P. L. Santoshi’s son from his second wife. In an interview, Raj revealed that although his father passed away a long time ago, he and his family are still close to his stepmother and step-siblings.

• After completing his 12th standard, Raj dropped his education and began working on the film sets and also assisting his father on his films.

• After his father passed away in 1978, Raj became the sole breadwinner of his family, comprising his mother, grandmother, and sisters. He began assisting many renowned film directors including Rabindra Dharmaraj on the Hindi film Chakra (1981).

• According to him, with the Bollywood film Chakra (1981), he was introduced to Alternate Cinema, a subgenre of filmmaking that is very different from the typical plots and characters of a certain period, which developed his interest in filmmaking.

• Later, he began working with the Indian film director Vidhu Vinod Chopra as a production manager for many of his films. However, he did not enjoy working as a production manager and would often bunk the office. After working with Vidhu for some time, Raj quit and decided to become a film director.

• He later worked as an assistant to the Indian film director and cinematographer Govind Nihalani on his five films including Vijeta (1982) and Ardh Satya (1982).

•  After working with Govind, Rajkumar Santoshi wanted to make a film single-handedly and started looking for producers for his film ‘Ghayal.’ He later met a South Indian producer named P Subbarao, who initially agreed to produce his film ‘Ghayal,’ but then stepped back due to some discontent about casting actors.

• Subbarao wanted to cast Sanjay Dutt as the male protagonist; whereas, Rajkumar wanted to cast Sunny Deol.

• During that time, he had written the story for Ghayal and wanted to cast either Sunny Deol or Kamal Hassan as the male protagonist for the film; however, the producer wanted to cast Sanjay Dutt. Rajkumar contacted Sunny Deol and convinced him to act in the film although, he was skeptical to do so.

  

•  Later, the film was produced by Dharmendra, starring Sunny Deol in the lead role.

  

• In 1993, he directed the Bollywood film Damini which is based on themes which were considered bold and ahead of their time, such as the status of women in our society and the perspective of people towards women. The film starred many renowned Bollywood actors including Sunny Deol, Rishi Kapoor, and Amrish Puri.

  

• The film later became a box office success, earning Santoshi his second consecutive Filmfare Award for Best Director, making him the only director to win the award for his first two films.

• In 1994, he wrote and directed the Bollywood film Andaz Apna Apna. The film was a commercial failure at the box office and gained very mixed reviews from the audience; however, over the years the film gained the title of a cult classic.

  

• In 1996, Rajkumar Santoshi paired with Sunny Deol and Meenakshi Seshadri for the Bollywood film Ghatak: Lethal. The film became a major commercial success at the box office and was ranked as the fourth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year.

• In 1999, he launched two-star kids Bobby Deol and Twinkle Khanna with his film Barsaat.

• Rajkumar Santoshi has written and directed many Bollywood films including Doli Saja Ke Rakhna (1998), Lajja (2001), and Halla Bol (2008).

• For a few years, during the early 2000s, Santoshi’s career took a major hit as many of his films including The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002), Khakee (2004), and Family– Ties of Blood (2006) were commercial failures at the Box Office.

• In 2009, Santoshi directed the Hindi film Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009) starring Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif in lead roles. The film became the highest-grossing film of Santoshi’s career after its release. The film ranked as the third highest-grossing Hindi film of the year.

• After a gap of four years, Santoshi directed the action comedy Phata Poster Nikhla Hero (2013) starring Shahid Kapoor and Ileana D’Cruz in lead roles. The film received mixed reviews and was declared a commercial failure at the box office.

• In 2023, after a 10-year break, Rajkumar Santoshi made a comeback with various films of different genres including the historical film “Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh,” the social comedy-drama “Aalay Mazya Rashila,” and the romantic comedy “Bad Boy.”

  

• During an interview, he talked about the reason for him becoming a filmmaker and said that it was not because he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father but because since childhood he was never interested in a regular office job.