Neeraj Ghaywan is the National Award winning director of the critically acclaimed Indo-French drama Masaan. He has previously assisted filmmaker Anurag Kashyap on films like Gangs of Wasseypur.Masaan received wide acclaim from critics, mainstream media, and audiences alike, and won the FIPRESCI prize in the Un Certain Regard category at the Cannes Film festival. 2015 as well as the Promising Future prize, in addition to several other awards and nominations around the world. He directed the Fuelled By Love commercial for British Airways., which has won multiple international awards. Neeraj also directed the widely popular Vicks commercial #TouchOfCare, which won hearts all over. The touching ad tells the story of a transgender woman and activist who came to adopt a young girl whose birth mother died of AIDS. His latest award-winning short, Juice, subtly tackles patriarchy and misogyny in the Indian household. He co-directed the second season of Netflix's highly acclaimed series - Sacred Games.
He started his career in corporate world with stints in UTV New Media, Hindustan Times and Tech Mahindra. But he was drawn towards cinema. Observing films with a critic's eye he started writing for the now defunct Passionforcinema.com. According to him, that interest grew into passion and with a push from the director, Anurag Kashyap, he made cinema his career and his life. He made his first short film, Independence that was shortlisted for the In Competition section of PFCOne, an online one-minute film festival, in 2010. He assisted Anurag in the making of Ugly and Gangs of Wasseypur directing two short films in the meanwhile, Shor and Epiphany. In January 2014 a screenplay he co-wrote "Fly Away Solo" was awarded the Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award. He made a motion picture based on it Masaan in 2015 that went on to win the FIPRESCI and Promising Future awards in the Un Certain Regard category at the Cannes Film festival. He made his first commercial short film in 2016 for British Airways. He received the Indira Gandhi Award for the Best Debut Film of a director for Masaan at the 63rd Indian National Film Awards.
