Like his mentor Ram Gopal Varma, Madhur Bhandarkar too worked in a video cassette library before he turned to filmmaking. The son of an electrical contractor, he dropped out of school but was an avid reader, especially of film magazines. He assisted Varma on Drohi (1992) and Raat (1992) and Rangeela (1995) before making his debut film Trishakti (1999), which bombed at the box-office. Two years later Bhandarkar was back with the multiple award-winning Chandni Bar (2001) delineating the life of a bar dancer (Tabu), her struggle for survival and tumultuous relationship with a gangster (Atul Kulkarni). Following a realistic narrative style, the director shot tacky sets and in seedy Mumbai neighbourhoods while Tabu delivered one of the grittiest performances of her career. It established the template that the filmmaker would faithfully follow through his career, focussing his gaze on a specific group of people in a profession or social class and exposing its ills to illustrate the depravation of contemporary urban life. Satta (2003) was about a young woman (Raveena Tandon) dragged into the murky world of politics, Page 3 (2005) put a journalist (Konkona Sen Sharma) at the centre of the narrative while zooming in on the superficiality of Mumbai’s socialite circuit and the sinister truths hidden within. The two films that came after, Corporate (2006) and Traffic Signal (2007) failed to do well at the box office, but Fashion (2008) which featured a brave performance from Kangna Ranaut as a drug-addled model was a modest success. His next release Heroine (2012) starred Kareena Kapoor as the actress who is trying to hold on to her career at all costs. His latest project, Calendar Girls (2015) which focused on the lives of women who were models for a popular calendar shoot, opened to good critical reviews. Most of Bhandarkar’s films have been women-centric, with a focus on the murky realities that lie behind a glamorous outside. His films have allowed the numerous actresses to deliver some of their finest performances and show their potential to its fullest. He is the recipient of a number of awards for his outstanding work, including the prestigious Padma Shri in 2016. Apart from that, he has won three National Film Awards for Chandni Bar (2002), Page 3 (2005) and Traffic Signal (2007).

He is married to his long-term girlfriend Renu Namboodiri since 2003 and has one daughter with her.