Deepa Mehta’s first Indian release Fire (1996), a tale of love between two co-sisters in a middle-class Delhi family created a huge stir because of its radical theme. Shot as a bilingual film starring Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das, the Censor Board passed the film with an adult certification on the condition that Das’ character’s name was changed from Sita to Nita in the Hindi version. The film opened in November 1998 and was running to packed houses when there was huge opposition to the film. After protests and court petitions, the film was re-released a couple of months later. But the storm created would rage on in the coming decades as more and more independent films with queer narratives started being made. Born in Amritsar, Punjab, Mehta’s father owned several cinema halls and while the family relocated to Delhi in her growing years, she was fed on a healthy appetite of films both Indian and Hollywood. After studying philosophy at Delhi University she started making documentary films and later worked at a newspaper where, during an assignment about the Canadian High Commissioner’s daughter, she met Paul Saltzman, married him and moved to Canada. After a divorce with Saltzman, she married the renowned producer David Hamilton who is her current partner. She is also the sister of Dilip Mehta, who is best known for directing the film Cooking With Stella (2009), which he wrote in collaboration with Deepa.

Mehta’s first two films, Sam and Me (1991) and Camilla (1994), were made in Canada. After Fire (1996) she made the light-hearted Bollywood/Hollywood (2002) before continuing with her elements trilogy with Earth (1998) based on Bapsi Sidhwa’s book Ice Candy Man. It recounted the trauma of India’s Partition. Set in Lahore and starring Aamir Khan in the central role along with Nandita Das and Rahul Khanna, the film explores the horrific tragedy which befell people from all strata of society causing widespread displacement and loss of lives and property. Water (2005) hit rough weather again as Mehta was about the begin shooting in Varanasi with Azmi, Das and Akshay Kumar when there were protests against the depiction of widows. The film about a group of widows in an ashram in pre-independence India that critiques regressive patriarchal traditions, was revived with a new cast—Lisa Ray, Seema Biswas and John Abraham—and shot in Sri Lanka. She was the recipient of numerous awards at film festivals in Canada, and even the much coveted Goveror General's Performing Arts Award in 2012.

Heaven On Earth (2008), released in a dubbed Hindi version as Videsh (2008) again took up an explosive theme—the plight of young girls forced into arranged marriages with NRI grooms. After that Mehta’s next release was an epic production of Salman Rushdie’s’ seminal novel Midnight’s Children (2013) which chronicles the history of a new nation as seen through the eyes of the youth that inherited independent India. Despite its grand production values, the film failed to capture the magical elements of the book and ended up as a literal adaptation of the novel.

Her latest release was the Randeep Hooda starrer Beeba Boys (2015). The movie did not open to good reviews.