Pradeep Sarkar (April 30, 1955–March 24, 2023), was born in Kolkata but went to Delhi to pursue higher education. He graduated from Delhi College of Art with a gold medal in 1979 and started working for ad agency Tulika. Later, he moved on to bigger and better agencies and afterwards formed his own agency. He wasn’t just one of the most sought after ad filmmakers, but made a name for himself making music videos as well. Videos directed by him, be it Shubha Mudgal’s Ab Ke Saawan, Euphoria’s Dhoom Pichak Dhoom and Maaeri, Sultan Khan’s Piya Basanti and Bhupen Hazarika’s Ganga are still talked about today as being the benchmarks of visual storytelling. He was able to tell a story in limited time in the music videos, his training in ad films, where one has to communicate the idea in 30 seconds or less, must have helped him tremendously in such assignments.
He became a film director at the young age of 50, when he directed Vidhu Vinod Chopra produced Parineeta (2005). It was the adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s 1914 Bengali novel of the same name. The film was much admired for the lyrical quality of its narration, as also for the sublime acting displayed by Vidya Balan, Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt. Pradeep Sarkar won the filmfare Best Art Direction, along with Keshto Mandal, and Tanushree Sarkar, and the film went on to win four other awards, including the Best Female Debut Award for Vidya Balan. After that, Sarkar returned to the big screen with Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (2007), starring Jaya Bachchan, Rani Mukerji and Konkona Sen Sharma. It was a family drama revolving around the elder daughter’s sacrifice for her family. Circumstances turn her into a high class escort but later things turn around for the better. The film, which marked his association with Yash Raj Films, didn’t fare well at the box office. His next, Lafangey Parindey (2010), starring Deepika Padukone and Neil Nitin Mukesh, revolved around a blind dancer, who is befriended by a boxer. The unusual love story, too, however, failed to make a mark at the box office. Sarkar bounced back four years later with Mardaani (2014), which starred Rani Mukerji as the no-nonsense female cop, Shivani Shivaji Roy, who uncovers a nest of human trafficking and successfully closes it down. Sarkar was praised for his gritty direction, while Rani too won plaudits for her acting. His next, Helicopter Eela (2018), revolved around the concept of helicopter parents and starred Kajol as a mom who is forever hovering around her college-going kid.
Apart from this, Sarkar also successfully directed OTT series like Coldd Lassi Aur Chicken Masala (2019) and Duranga (2022), which was an adaptation of Korean drama Flower of Evil. The show was co-directed by Aijaz Khan, who directed the later episodes.
The director was admitted to the ICU at Lilavati hospital in Bandra, Mumbai, following a fever on March 22 and was admitted to the hospital later, where his condition steadily deteriorated. He passed away around 3:30 am on Friday morning.