Apurva Asrani (born 21 March 1978) is an Indian filmmaker. He has written the human rights drama Aligarh (2016), the courtroom drama Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors (2020), has co-written & edited the film Shahid (2013), has edited the popular gangster film Satya (1998) & also the webseries Made in Heaven (2019).
He also the director of the Tera Mera Pyar (2005) music videos for Sony Music India.
Apurva made his webseries writing debut with the 2021 Disney Hotstar show Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors. The show starring Pankaj Tripathi, Kirti Kulhari, Anupriya Goenka & Dipti Naval received glowing reviews and garnered record viewership for Disney Hotstar.
In August 2021, Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors became the first Indian series to win 'Best Drama Series' in South Asia at the Content Asia Awards in Singapore. Apurva was subsequently nominated for a Filmfare Award for 'Best Adapted Screenplay' and for a Critics Choice Award by the Film Critics Guild for 'Best Writing'.
Career
Satya & Early career
Apurva began his career in 1995 as an assistant on the popular Bollywood countdown show Bpl Oye! on Channel [V]. At 19 he became a film editor on the film Satya, directed by Ram Gopal Varma. His frenetic narrative device was celebrated by critics and audiences alike and he went on to win the Filmfare Award for Best Editor for it. He was also the youngest ever recipient of that award. He then went on to edit Sunhil Sippy's bilingual comedy Snip (film).
Apurva's other work includes the gang war film Chhal directed by Hansal Mehta. Critic Subhash K Jha wrote in his review 'The real hero of Chhal is Apurva Asrani's editing'. Apurva edited Anupam Kher's directorial debut Om Jai Jagadish and also collaborated with Nagesh Kukunoor on his Akshay Kumar starrer Tasveer 8x10 as supervising editor and as film editor on Aashayein, starring John Abraham.
In 2005, Apurva directed the music videos of Sony Music India's album Tera Mera Pyar and launched actress Nimrat Kaur in it. The title track, "Tera Mera Pyar", was sung by Kumar Sanu; "Yeh Kya Hua" was sung by Shreya Ghosal and composed by UK-based artists Partners in Rhyme. Tera Mera Pyar won album of the year at the Sahara Music Awards in San Francisco.
In March 2006, Apurva represented India in Editing Fashion, a multimedia experiment for UK-based showstudio.com. Apurva's short film Imperfect Moon was showcased along with the films of Oscar nominated British director, Mike Figgis and Wong Kar Wai's editor William Chang.
On the UK stage, Apurva has collaborated with a British theatre company RIFCO Arts to write dialogue for three successful UK touring productions: Bollywood: Yet Another Love Story (2000/2003), The Deranged Marriage (2006) and There’s Something About Simmy (2007).
He is the editor and additional screenplay writer of the film Shahid and is also the writer and editor of the internationally acclaimed Aligarh.
Shahid
Apurva edited Hansal Mehta's Shahid (2012) that was produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur & UTV. The film is based on the true story of slain lawyer Shahid Azmi who fought several pro-bono cases in India. Shahid world-premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 9 September 2012 and went on to win the 'Silver Prize' at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MAMI). Director Hansal Mehta had this to say about Apurva's contribution to the film – 'Apurva, besides editing the film also shaped the narrative into a seamless, linear progression for which I have credited him for screenplay. If the film communicates a compelling story a lot of credit for it goes to Apu'.
CityLights, Children of War, Waiting
In 2014, Apurva edited Fox Star Studios & Vishesh Films CityLights starring Rajkummar Rao & Manav Kaul. The film received glowing reviews from leading critics.
Rahul Desai in his Mumbai Mirror review of Citylights said: Mehta and writer-editor Asrani pull off a rare feat here. They not only choose the right film to adapt—based solely on its theme and universal topicality—but build upon the original, without being overambitious.
In the same year, Apurva also edited Mrityunjay Devvrat's Children of War (formerly titled 'The Bastard Child'), a stark portrayal of the Bangladesh genocide of 1971. The film ran for a record-breaking 12 weeks in Bangladesh and is the only foreign produced film in history to have won a Bangladeshi National Award.
In 2015, Apurva edited Viacom 18's 'Dharam Sankat Mein', an adaptation of the British hit The Infidel.