Anubhav Sinha made his first feature film in 2001. The film was ‘Tum Bin’, a romantic drama, with a bunch of great songs and strong emotions at the core of it. The film, starring newcomers, turned into a sleeper hit and Sinha made another film in the same genre called ‘Aapko Pehle Bhi Kahin Dekha Hai’. The film could not set the cash registers ringing and that prompted him to switch gears from romance to action.
This new phase started off well with ‘Dus’ (2005) turning out to be a good success but later, he had a flop in ‘Cash’ (2007). In between these two actioners, he also made an emotional drama ‘Tathastu’ but it did not do well. After the debacle of ‘Cash’, he devoted a couple of years developing the script of and then making ‘Ra.One’ (2011). The Shah Rukh Khan – Kareena Kapoor Khan starrer superhero flick was one of the most expensive films to have been made in the history of Bollywood. Though the film did fairly well (earned 150+ crores at the domestic box-office way back in 2011), it was still considered to be an under-performer.
After producing a couple of films (‘Gulaab Gang’, ‘Zid’, ) over the next couple of years, he directed ‘Tum Bin 2’, which had a similar storyline to the first film in the franchise but failed to make any kind of impact at the box-office. The filmmaker, who was known to be very vocal about pertinent issues on social media, made a film called ‘Mulk’ last year. The film made a comment on the tension prevailing between different communities in India. Though the film was not a blockbuster hit, it probably gave him the kind of respect which no other film of his had managed to earn for him. The film, despite a very low opening, managed to run in theatre for a couple of weeks and registered decent footfalls.
After ‘Mulk’, Anubhav directed a film called ‘Abhi Toh Party Shuru Hui Hai’. The film, touted to be a political satire, has a huge cast comprising of Saurabh Shukla, Pankaj Tripathi, Vinay Pathak, Pavan Malhotra, Divya Dutta, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Richa Chadha, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Cyrus Broacha, Prateik Babbar and Shriya Pilgaonkar. After finishing the shoot for the film, Anubhav quickly moved on to make another film called ‘Article 15’. The film, starring Ayushmann Khurrana as the lead protagonist, talks about the caste based discrimination happening in the society.
In a recent interview, Anubhav stated that he aims to make two films a year now. While ‘Abhi Toh Party Shuru Hui Hai’ is expected to hit the screens later this year, he is ready to roll his next film, another social drama, featuring Taapsee Pannu in the principal role.
