Devashish Makhija

Devashish Makhija has written and directed the full length award-winning feature films 'Joram', 'Bhonsle' and 'Ajji' - all three of which premiered at IFFR Rotterdam and BIFF Busan - and the multiple-award-winning short films 'Cycle', 'Cheepatakadumpa', 'Taandav', 'El'ayichi', 'Agli Baar', 'Rahim Murge pe mat ro', 'Absent', and 'Happy'.'Joram', 'Ajji' and 'Cheepatakadumpa' are streaming on Amazon Prime Video. 'Bhonsle' is streaming on SonyLiv.'Joram' won two Filmfare Awards in 2024 for Best Film (Critics) and Best Story; two Film Critics Guild awards for Best Writing and Best Editing; and two top awards at the Durban International Film Festival. 'Bhonsle' won a National Award, a Film Critics Guild award, an Asia Pacific Screen Award in 2021; and Best Director and Best Screenplay at the Asian Film Festival of Barcelona, Spain. 'Ajji' won the Fresh Blood Best Film top award at the Beaune Crime Film Festival, France; and an award each at the Indian Film Festival of LA, and the UK Asian Film Festival.Makhija began his journey as researcher & assistant on the iconic 'Black Friday' directed by Anurag Kashyap. His short and feature films have competed and won awards at the international film festivals of Rotterdam, Busan, Sydney, Chicago, Goteborg, Beaune, Black Nights, Mooov, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Durban, Tampere, Winterthur, MOMA, APSA, Barcelona, Singapore, Kerala, Mumbai, Dharamsala amongst many others.Makhija is a multi-practice artist. He has had his own solo art show 'Occupying Silence', and is a prolific writer, having written the bestselling children's books 'When Ali became Bajrangbali', 'Why Paploo was perplexed', 'We are the dancing forest', 'Go go flamingo', a collection of short stories 'Forgetting' (now republished as 'Joram'), the multiple-award-winning YA novel 'Oonga', and the anthology of poetry 'Bewilderness'. He has been widely published by the Sahitya Akademi, Harper-Collins, Penguin, Akashic, Red River, Tulika, Scholastic, and many others.