Ali Abbas Zafar is an Indian movie director and screenwriter. He is best known for directing the movies
Gunday and
Salman Khan-starrer
Sultan.
Early LifeAli Abbas Zafar was born on 18 May 1980, in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. He studied at Marshall School before graduating from the Kirori Mal College, Delhi University. While pursuing his college degree, Ali Abbas Zafar worked part time on the critically successful 2005 film Amu.
Movie CareerAfter working on Amu, Ali Abbas Zafar moved to Mumbai and joined Yash Raj Films. Between 2007 and 2010, he was an assistant director on movies like
Marigold: An Adventure in India, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, and
Badmaash Company. In August 2010, he got his break when Yash Raj Studios announced that he would be writing and directing their upcoming project. In 2011, Ali Abbas Zafar`s movie
Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, starring
Imran Khan and
Katrina Kaif was released. It received mixed reviews but the director soon signed on for another film. The second film he directed was the commercial hit
Gunday, which boasted of a star cast of
Ranveer Singh,
Arjun Kapoor,
Priyanka Chopra, and
Irrfan Khan. The movie was generally well-received by the audiences and grossed over 100 crore INR worldwide. This established Ali Abbas Zafar as a film director with the ability to direct commercially successful films and paved the way for him to work on several more high-profile projects. In 2016, Ali Abbas Zafar directed the movie
Sultan, starring Bollywood icon
Salman Khan. His other releases includes
Bharat (2019) and
Khaali Peeli (2020). He then wrote, directed and produced movies like Jogi (2022), Bloody Daddy (2023) and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (2024).