Indian director, producer and screenwriter, Kalpana Lajmi is the niece of filmmaker Guru Dutt and began her career as an assistant director to Shyam Benegal. Starting off as an independent filmmaker, she made her directorial debut with the documentary film D.G. Movie Pioneer in 1978. Her feature film debut was Ek Pal in the year 1986, after which she moved on to direct her first television serial Lohit Kinare (1988). Her other notable film credits include Darmiyaan: In Between (1997), Daman: A Victim of Marital Violence (2001), Kyon? (2003) and Chingari (2006). Lajmi was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2017 and tragically passed away in 2018 at the age of 64.