දීපා මේහ්තා

**Deepa Mehta**,  ( born 1 January 1950) is an Indo-Canadian film director and screenwriter, best known for her Elements Trilogy, *Fire* (1996), *Earth* (1998), and *Water* (2005).

*Earth* was submitted by India as its official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and *Water* was Canada's official entry for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, making it only the third non-French-language Canadian film submitted in that category after Attila Bertalan's 1990 invented-language film *A Bullet to the Head* and Zacharias Kunuk's 2001 Inuktitut-language feature *Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner*.

She co-founded Hamilton-Mehta Productions, with her husband, producer David Hamilton in 1996. She was awarded a Genie Award in 2003 for the screenplay of *Bollywood/Hollywood*. In May 2012, Mehta received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts.

## Early life
Mehta was born in Amritsar, Punjab though her family moved to New Delhi while she was still a child, and her father worked as a film distributor. Subsequently, Mehta attended Welham Girls High School, boarding school in Dehradun on the foothills of Himalayas. She graduated from the Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi with a degree in Philosophy. During the production of her first feature-length documentary focusing on the working life of a child bride,

Once in Canada, Mehta and Saltzman along with Mehta's brother Dilip started Sunrise Films, a production company, initially producing documentaries but moved into television production creating the television series *Spread Your Wings* (1977–79) about the creative and artistic work of young people from around the world. The first episode, "Benares, January 1910", aired in 1993. The second episode was aired in 1996 as part of a TV movie titled *Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father*.

Mehta directed several English-language films set in Canada, including *The Republic of Love* (2003) and *Heaven on Earth* (2008) which deals with domestic violence and has Preity Zinta playing the female lead. It premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. Also in 2008 Mehta produced the documentary *The Forgotten Woman*, directed by her brother Dilip.

On 29 October 2020, Telefilm Canada announced that Metha's film *Funny Boy* (2020) would represent Canada in the Academy Awards race for best international feature film.

### Elements trilogy
Mehta is best known for her Elements Trilogy — *Fire* (1996), *Earth* (1998) (released in India as *1947: Earth*), and *Water* (2005) — which won her much critical acclaim. Some notable actors who have worked in this trilogy are Aamir Khan, Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, John Abraham, Rahul Khanna, Lisa Ray, and Nandita Das. These films are also notable for Mehta's collaborative work with author Bapsi Sidhwa. Sidhwa's novel *Cracking India* (1991, U.S.; 1992, India; originally published as *Ice Candy Man*, 1988, England) is the basis for Mehta's 1998 film *Earth*. Mehta's film *Water* was later published by Sidhwa as the 2006 novel *Water: A Novel*. All three films have soundtracks composed by A. R. Rahman.

*Fire* follows the love affair between two sisters-in-law whose own sexless marriages bring them together in a passionate romance. It caused controversy upon its release as several Hindutva groups took issue with its central lesbian romance, one that was seen to break traditional family and religious value within society, as there were protests in cities across India. Internationally, the film was critically acclaimed and would go on to win the Most Popular Canadian Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival. *Water* opened the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006.

### ''Midnight's Children*
Mehta collaborated on the screenplay for *Midnight's Children'' with the novel's author, Salman Rushdie. Indian American actor Satya Bhabha played the role of Saleem Sinai while other roles were played by Shriya Saran, Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher, Siddharth Narayan, Rahul Bose, Soha Ali Khan, Shahana Goswami and Darsheel Safary.

The film was released on 9 September 2012 at Toronto International Film Festival and would be nominated for Best Motion Picture along with 7 other nominations at the Canadian Screen Awards. With her childhood and heritage informing her of key Indian and Hindu traditions, she has been seen to compare these practices with a more "Westernized" philosophy that has often resulted in controversy. Her brother, Dilip Mehta, is a photojournalist and film director. He directed *Cooking with Stella*, which he co-wrote with Deepa.

Mehta participated in a TV PSA for the charity Artists Against Racism, and is a member of the organization.

## Filmography 
### TV and web series 
### As actress 
## Awards
In addition to her filmmaking awards, Mehta has received the following honors:

*Doctor of Laws, University of Victoria, 2009
*Governor General's Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, 2012
*Doctor of Laws, Mount Allison University, 2013
*Doctor of Letters, Concordia University, 2013
* Member of the Order of Ontario, 2013
* Officer of the Order of Canada, 2013

## See also
* List of female film and television directors
* List of LGBT-related films directed by women
* South Asian Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area
* Women's cinema

## References
* 
* 

## External links
* 
* Hamilton Mehta Productions
* *Deepa Mehta In Profile* , a short film tribute on her Governor General's Performing Arts Award, National Film Board of Canada website
* Deepa Mehta speaks with WSWS 15 May 2006 with Richard Phillips on the *World Socialist Web Site*

ප්‍රවර්ගය:1950 උපත්

ප්‍රවර්ගය:ජීවමාන ජනයා