Jagmohan Mundhra
| Jag Mundhra | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Jagmohan Mundhra 29 October 1948 Nagpur, India |
| Died | 4 September 2011 (aged 62) Mumbai, India |
| Residence | Los Angeles, United States |
| Alma mater |
Michigan State University IIT Bombay |
| Occupation | Director |
| Awards |
Zanzibar International Film Festival Golden Dhow (2001) Bollywood Movie Awards (2001) Political Film Society, USA (PFS) Award - Peace Category (2004) Audience Choice Award Bermuda International Film Festival (2001) |
Jag Mundhra (born Jagmohan Mundhra 29 October 1948 – 4 September 2011) was an Indian American director, producer, and screenwriter best known for his early career as an American exploitation film writer-director. After his first dramas, Suraag, and the socially-relevant film, Kamla, Mundhra directed, in the late 1980s and the 1990s, a string of horror and erotic thriller movies for theatrical distribution and direct to video, including The Jigsaw Murders (1988), Halloween Night (1988), Night Eyes (1990), The Other Women (1992), L.A. Goddess (1993), Sexual Malice (1994), Tales of The Kama Sutra: The Perfumed Garden (2000), and Tales of The Kama Sutra 2: Monsoon (2001).
Beginning with Bawandar (2000), which he directed under the name Jagmohan, Mundhra was back to issue-oriented films. Bawander is about the fight of a poor woman for justice and was based on the story of a Rajasthani woman Bhanwari Devi. After the film's release Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister of Rajasthan called him and said, "Aapke bawandar ne bada bawander machaya hai." He gave Rs 50,000 and land for Bhanwari Devi and also money for her son's education. To Mundhra, "It's not a movie about rape, but the empowerment of a woman. This character could be fictitious and yet the story would have had the same powerful message". In his own words, Kamla, Bawander and Provoked are his trology of strong women centric films. At the time of his death he was working on a film based on the life of Sonia Gandhi. Mundhra was also a life member of International Film And Television Club of Asian Academy of Film & Television.
Mundhra was born at Nagpur, and grew up in a Marwari locality in Calcutta, in a conservative family where films were frowned upon. He nevertheless nurtured a secret ambition to become a filmmaker. His childhood as of other Indians of his generation, was a tough one, counting pennies for the tram that rode to the other, affluent side of the city, and withstanding his family's strict traditions.
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