Nitesh Tiwari is an award-winning Indian director, producer, screenwriter, and lyricist whose filmography includes successful films like Chillar Party (2011), Bhoothnath Returns (2014), Dangal (2016), Chhichhore (2019), Bawaal (2023), etc.
Born Name
Nitesh Tiwari
Nick Name
Nitesh
Nitesh Tiwari as seen at the festival launch of Khidkiyaan in 2017 (Bollywood Hungama / Wikimedia / CC BY 3.0)
Sun Sign
Gemini
Born Place
Itarsi, Madhya Pradesh, India
Residence
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Nationality
Education
He studied at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Metallurgy and Material Science Engineering in 1996.
Occupation
Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Lyricist
Family
Father – B. D. Tiwari
Siblings – He has 1 brother and 1 sister.
Build
Slim
Height
5 ft 9½ in or 176.5 cm
Weight
64 kg or 141 lbs
Girlfriend / Spouse
Nitesh has dated –
Ashwiny Iyer – While working at Leo Burnett, he met Ashwiny Iyer and the two hit it off immediately. They began dating not long after and eventually got married. Ashwiny is a notable filmmaker and writer herself who has the award-winning film, Nil Battey Sannata (2016) to her credit. The couple is parents to a twin boy and girl named Amaarisa Tiwari and Aaradhya Tiwari respectively.
Nitesh Tiwari as seen with his wife Ashwiny in October 2022 (Nitesh Tiwari / Instagram)
Race / Ethnicity
Asian (Indian)
Hair Color
Black
However, his hair has turned mostly ‘Gray’ due to his advancing age.
Eye Color
Dark Brown
Sexual Orientation
Straight
Distinctive Features
Square-shaped face
He is soft-spoken.
Religion
Hinduism
Nitesh Tiwari as seen posing for an Instagram picture with musician Santhosh Narayanan in 2022 (Nitesh Tiwari / Instagram)
Nitesh Tiwari Facts
Before finding success in the Hindi film industry, he worked as a creative director at the reputed advertising company, Leo Burnett.
In March 2018, Tiwari and his wife co-founded a production company called Earthsky Pictures. The company has produced several ad films, many of the pair’s own films, as well as the documentary series Break Point (2021) which tells the story of Indian tennis legends Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi.
He made his film debut by co-directing Chillar Party (2011) along with Vikas Bahl. The film, which is centered around 10 kids, was a sleeper hit and garnered several accolades upon its release. It received the National Film Award for ‘Best Children’s Film’, ‘Best Child Artist’ (for the whole cast), and ‘Best Screenplay (Original)’ in 2011.
Tiwari’s film Bawaal (2023), starring Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor in lead roles, created a huge controversy due to its tone-deaf depiction of the horrors of Auschwitz and the Holocaust as a whole. After its release on Amazon Prime, Rabbi Abraham Cooper from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is a Jewish human rights organization, censured the film for monetizing on the ”…suffering and systematic murder of millions of victims of the Nazi Holocaust”.
Arguably, his career’s breakthrough film was the Aamir Khan-starrer sports film Dangal (2016), which he wrote and directed. The film was declared a blockbuster and became the highest-grossing Indian film ever upon its release. Furthermore, it was the first Indian film to earn a worldwide gross collection of ₹2,024 crore (US$311 million), with more than half of its share i.e., ₹1,400 crore (US$206 million) coming from Chinese markets alone. The film’s unprecedented success in China earned it a spot on the list of ‘Top 20 Highest-Grossers of All Time’ in the country.
Featured Image by Bollywood Hungama / Wikimedia / CC BY 3.0