Kalpana Lajmi

Kalpana Lajmi (born 1954) is an Indian film director, producer and script writer. Lajmi is an independent filmmaker working more on realistic, low budget films, which are known in India as parallel cinema. Her films are often woman-oriented films. She has been in a longtime relationship with famous Bollywood/Assamese musician Dr. Bhupen Hazarika.

Biography

Kalpana Lajmi debuted as an assistant director under the veteran film director Shyam Benegal. She later went on to work as an assistant costume designer in Shyam Benegal's Bhumika: The Role (1979) that starred Smita Patil. She made her directorial début with the documentary film D.G. Movie Pioneer in 1978 and went on to direct more documentaries like A Work Study in Tea Plucking (1979) and Along the Brahmaputra (1981). She debuted as a film director in 1986 with Ek Pal (one minute), starring Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah. She produced the film, took part in the film writing and had written the screenplay for the film along with Gulzar.

She then took a break from directing movies and went to direct her first television serial Lohit Kinare (1988) starring Tanvi Azmi. She made her comeback to cinema in 1993 with the critically acclaimed Rudaali starring Dimple Kapadia. Kapadia won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance and Lajmi also won accolades for directing the film.

Her next film was Darmiyan (1997) which was directed and produced by her. The movie starred Kirron Kher and Tabu in pivotal...
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