Indra Kumar is an Indian film director, producer, and actor. He primarily works in the Bollywood film industry and is best known for directing Dil,
Raja, and the Masti series.
Early LifeIndra Kumar was born to stage actors Faredun Irani and Shaguna Irani. His sister
Aruna Irani and brothers
Adi Irani and
Firoz Irani are actors, and his other brothers Ratan Irani and Balraj Irani are producers.
Personal LifeIndra Kumar is married to Bina Kumar. Their daughter Shweta Kumar is an Indian film actress who has appeared in the movies
Karzzzz (2008) and
Super Nani (2014).
Movie CareerIn the early 1980`s Indra Kumar was seen acting in movies like Chhupa Chhu (1981), Imagi Ningthem (1982), Log Kya Kahenge (1982) and Footpath Ni Rani (1984). He soon decided to take up direction, and directed and co-produced the film Dil in 1990. Starring
Aamir Khan and
Madhuri Dixit, the romantic drama was a huge success. Indra Kumar was nominated for the Filmfare Best Film Award and the movie earned nearly 125 crore INR at the box office. Dil was remade in Kannada, Telugu, and Bengali. Two years later, Indra Kumar teamed up with producer Ashok Thakeria for the drama film Beta, a Hindi remake of the Kannada film Mallammana Pavada (1969). Indra Kumar and Ashok Thakeria won the Filmfare Award for Best Film and Indra Kumar won the Best Director Award. The cast of the movie includes
Anil Kapoor and
Madhuri Dixit in lead roles and Indra Kumar`s sister
Aruna Irani in a supporting role. All three of them won Filmfare awards for Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress, respectively.
The director`s next project
Raja (1995), also saw him being nominated for two Filmfare Awards- for Best Film and Best Director, which eventually went to
Yash Chopra and
Aditya Chopra, respectively, for
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Indra Kumar then gathered an ensemble cast of
Aamir Khan,
Ajay Devgn,
Kajol, and
Juhi Chawla for the comedy drama
Ishq (1997). However, the director saw less success in his next few movies,
Mann (1999),
Aashiq (2001), and Rishtey (2002). In 2004, Indra Kumar directed Masti, an adult comedy film, which was a relatively unheard of genre in Bollywood. The film boasted of a cast of
Ajay Devgn,
Vivek Oberoi,
Aftab Shivdasani Riteish Deshmukh,
Lara Dutta,
Amrita Rao,
Tara Sharma, and
Genelia DSouza. The film was well received by critics and did reasonably well at the box office. Indra Kumar then directed the 2007 comedy movie
Dhamaal, which was influenced by Hollywood classic, It`s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The film starred
Sanjay Dutt,
Riteish Deshmukh,
Javed Jaffrey,
Aashish Chaudhary, and
Arshad Warsi. In 2011, the director made a sequel to it,
Double Dhamaal, which saw the additions of
Kangana Ranaut and
Mallika Sherawat. Both films did well at the box office although the original received better reviews from the critics.
Indra Kumar then directed the second installment in the Masti series,
Grand Masti (2013), also referred to as Masti 2, which saw
Riteish Deshmukh,
Vivek Oberoi, and
Aftab Shivdasani reprise their roles. The adult comedy went on to be a super hit, grossing around 145 crore INR at the international box office. After directing the 2014 drama film
Super Nani (2014), Indra Kumar released the third installment in the Masti series,
Great Grand Masti (2016). The movie saw the addition of actress
Urvashi Rautela. Unfortunately, the movie was leaked online, which resulted in it doing very poorly at the box office. He then directed and produced Total Dhamaal (2019). He then directed Thank God (2022) starring Ajay Devgn, Sidharth Malhotra and Rakul Preet Singh in the lead.