Born in Nagpur, India, Subhash Ghai a son of a dentist in delhi and a Punjabi family completed his higher secondary education in delhi and further did his Commerce Graduation from Punjab university at Rohtak [ now in Haryana]. Thereafter he took admission in Film & Television Institute of India, Pune and completed his two years course in Cinema specializing Acting . but he was always a keen student of cinema as a director and was exposed to world cinema too during his education in FTII , pune .

In 1970 he married a maharashtrian girl from pune known as rehana now as mrs mukta ghai .soon after He moved to Mumbai to start his career as a screen actor with 6 films including films like umang and aradhna but soon he rediscoverd his talent a of a story teller .HE immediately shifted to writing screenplay and sold six scripts to top six directors within one year ..but as luck moved .. in 1974 he got his first directorial break on his own script “KALICHARAN” (1975) which proved a big hit of its time and thereafter he did not have to look back and went on making blockbusters as a writer and director in main stream cinema like Vishvanath, Goutam Govinda, Krodhi, Vidhata and then started his own production company ‘Mukta Arts‘ in 1978 with Karz, Hero, Karma, Ram Lakhan, Saudagar, Khalnayak, Pardes, Taal, Yaadein with lot of public and critical acclaim. He has been awarded with various laurels and titles including “SHOWMAN” and “Dream Merchant” by various media establishments. The then President of India, Hon’ble Giani Zail Singh honored him with an Award for making “KARMA”, an anti-terrorism motion picture in 1986. Also his technical excellence in karma’ brought the audience back to empty theatres in India to experience big screen in 1985 In 90’s his films like “SAUDAGAR”, “KHALNAYAK”, “PARDES” and “TAAL” opened a wider audience worldwide for Indian movies and featured in Hollywood top twenty at box-office for various weeks first time . Subhash Ghai is one of the most renowned names among Indians all over the world and south Asians for his excellent record as an Indian filmmaker in mainstream cinema for the last 32 years.

Subhash Ghai has so far written and directed 18 motion pictures out of which 13 have been declared as the blockbusters of their time. in film making in India.

Apart from being entertaining, most of his films also tackled various social issues successfully till the latest directorial movie ‘ BLACK N WHITE ‘ which deals with terrorism with a new thought released in 2008 . In year 2006, he was awarded NATIONAL AWARD for producing a movie on social issues named “IQBAL”. In 2008 this was the first time in the history of his career when he had taken the burden of directing two films on his shoulder in one year , dealing with two different sensibilities by making real life size film ‘ Black and White ‘ dealing with a issue of terrorisim and multi starrer musical extravaganza titled ‘YuvraaJ, a fancy retro fashion feel motion picture . M F Hussain saw ‘Yuvraaj’ twice and expressed his full appreciation in media , while subhash K Jha named the film as “ Best of 2008 “ inspite of its low performance at Box office with a major set back brought by Mumbai Terror attack just after five days from its release 21 st nov 2008.

Adding to his business sense as a producer Subhash Ghai was the first producer who became instrumental in bringing in Film Insurance to Indian Film Industry and United India Insurance Co. Ltd. felicitated him for his contribution and named the policy as “Cine Mukta Policy”.

In the year 2000, MUKTA ARTS LIMITED became first Hindi Film Production Company to go for public investment and achieved an overwhelming response from the public and the capital market of India.

Subhash Ghai as chairman and managing director of MUKTA ARTS LTD. has set up many plans to institutionalize the Indian entertainment industry and take it to the global scenario by developing worldwide distribution, productions, technology, studios and institutes of international standard in the field of arts and sciences in films and television and other media arts.

As a filmmaker, he introduced and reintroduced many fresh talents and groomed them into stardom such as Jackie Shroff, Madhuri Dixit, Manisha Koirala, Mahima Chaudhary, Anurag Sinha etc. and groomed sanjay dutt and anupam kher in “ vidhata and ‘Karma’ respectively and brought them into stardom . that’s why he is also known as a great mentor and great teacher in the arts and sciences of filmmaking as commented by many top stars and technicians of today.

That’s the reason Subhash Ghai had the biggest dream of setting up an international institute with a huge cost in Filmcity, Mumbai which became a reality in 2006 when Whistling Woods International Institute, an International quality film and television training institute started its function in full gear which was inaugurated by Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Shri Priyaranjan Das-munshi. In 20 acres land in film city ,Mumbai . Today it is one of the best three schools in the world and largest in Asia .Visit www.whistlingwoods.net

Widely traveled worldwide, Subhash Ghai has been on the board, committees, associations with various activities and missions in the field of social, economic or human welfare.

He had also been appointed as the Chairman of the Entertainment Committee of Trade body CII and also the member of and also the member of FICCI and NASCOM and He is a member of executive committee of Producers Guild of India and a member of United Producers forum. and its alliances and has been invited to address at various forums and seminars including on corporate governance and other subjects relating to the growth of media and entertainment industry in India and worldwide.

He has been on the panel of jury at International Emmy awards for three consequent years till 2007. He was the only Indian producer invited at Cannes festival in 2005 to be on the panel of eleven international studios chiefs committee on piracy issues . he was honoured by duabai international film festival in 2006 as achiever in cinema ‘

In December 2008 . he has been honored as special guest to the international film festival GOA and international film festival of KERALA . and now his latest film ‘ Black And white ‘ on terrorism is being shown at international film festival . PUNE . in jan 2009 .

sharing his thoughts today subhash ghai insists that we must share our knowledge , experience and money with next young generation of film makers and keep learning from the contemporary cinema to keep pace with time and values .”

Today he has a happy family with a wife mukta ghai and two daughters meghna and muskaan . and a son in law Rahul puri .Meghna Heads the film and tv institute ; whistlingwoods international in Mumbai . and rahul is the executive director of Mukta Arts ltd.


His company ‘s site is www.muktaarts.com

His international film school site is www.whistlingwoods.net

His official blog site is www.subhashghai.in


Major achievements of Subhash Ghai.

1. In the history of indian cinema business He is the first producer from bollywood who took his company to the public and came out with a public issue in year 2000 and became the first Company to go corporate.


2.He Brought film insurance coverage to Indian Film Industry. His “Taal” was the first Indian film to be insured.


3.He was instrumental in bringing IDBI (Industrial Development Bank of India) and leading film producers on one platform by arranging a symposium which paved way for producers to get corporate loans for their projects from IDBI.


4.He also brought the digital projections systems to be installed in theatres, which resulted into reducing the costs of prints to the producers on one hand and reduction of running costs to the theatre owners. This technology also helped in curbing the piracy and enhancing the income of theatre owners due to increased audience, which in turn helped the State Governments by getting more revenue through increased Entertainment Tax collection


5.He introduced many new talents who became stars later such as Jackie Shroff, Madhuri Dixit, Manisha Koirala, Mahima Chaudhary, Vivek Mushran, Apoorva Agnihotri, Anurag Sinha etc. He also introduced new technicians like Choreographer Saroj Khan and Cinematographer Kabir Lal who are ace technicians today.


6.Apart from getting many awards for his films, Subhash Ghai was also honored by the United States Senate in October 1996 for his achievements as Producer and Director.


7.His films like “Saudagar”, “Pardes” and “Taal” were instrumental in widening the Overseas market by reaching many areas which were not touched till then. This boosted the revenue from Overseas market benefiting all the Producers and in turn India saw a huge increase in import revenue from film industry.