| 8 | 7 | Studied economics at Osmania University, Hyderabad; involved in student theatre. Founded Hyderabad Film Society. Moved to Bombay and worked for Lintas advertising agency (1959-63) and for Advertising & Sales Promotion Co. (1963-73). Made more than 900 advertisements and 11 corporate films (1959- 73). Worked as documentarist; taught at the FTII (1969) and at Bhavan College (1966-73). Received Homi Bhabha fellowship (1969-72), allowing a stay in Britain and in the USA where he worked as associate producer for Boston WGBH TV and with the Children’s Television Workshop in New York. First feature, Ankur, with a 10-year-old script and independently financed, uses a quasi-realist style then considered antagonistic to the Hindi film industry. Its commercial success in the wake of Bhuvan Shome (1969) spawned a new sector of film-making later known as ‘middle cinema’ (cf. New Indian Cinema). |