Deepa Mehta is an Indo-Canadian screenwriter and movie director, who shot to fame after creating some films of immense repute like `Water` (2005, `Earth` (1998) and `Fire` (1996) which is collectively termed as the `Elements Trilogy`. Earth, one of her movies was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, while the film Water won the official entry for Canada for the category of Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The latter was one of Deepa Mehta`s unique achievements since it was Canada`s very first non-French movie which was honoured with such a nomination. She is also the co-founder of an organization known as Hamilton-Mehta Productions, along with David Hamilton, her husband in the year 1996.

Early Life of Deepa Mehta
Recipient of the Genie Award, Deepa Mehta was born on 1st January, 1950, in Amritsar, in the north-Indian state of Punjab. During her childhood, her father had shifted to New Delhi where he was a film distributor. Deepa Mehta did her schooling from Welham Girls High School, which used to be a boarding school meant for girls, in Dehradun. She pursued graduation in philosophy, from Lady Shri Ram College For Women, University of Delhi.

Career of Deepa Mehta
Deepa Mehta is renowned for her Elements Trilogy comprising the movies Fire, Water and Earth, in which talented actors like Shabana Azmi, Aamir Khan, John Abraham, Seema Biswas, Lisa Ray, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rahul Khanna and Nandita Das had enacted some power plugged roles. The film Earth is based on `Cracking India`, a novel by the author Bapsi Sidhwa, whose original title when published was `Ice Candy Man` (1998). Mehta`s movie Water was inspired by another novel composed by Sidhwa entitled, `Water: A Novel`. The distinguished music director A.R. Rahman had provided the soundtracks of these movies.

Her movie `Midnight`s Children` was motivated by the novel of the same name, written by Salman Rushdie. The role of Saleem Sinai was enacted by Satya Bhabha, a British-Indian actor while the other notable actors in this film are Shabana Azmi, Rahul Bose, Soha Ali Khan, Seema Biswas, Anupam Kher, Shriya Saran, Siddharth Narayan, Darsheel Safary and Shahana Goswami. This movie was officially released on 9th September in the year 2012, at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Achievements of Deepa Mehta
Following her graduation, Deepa Mehta commenced creating certain documentaries in the country and soon she came in contact with Paul Saltzman, a Canadian documentarian. Paul Saltzman, at that point of time was filming a documentary movie in India. During 1973, Mehta moved to Canada. In Canada, Deepa Mehta started experimenting with children`s films as well as come documentaries like `At 99: A Portrait of Louise Tandy Murch` (1975) and others. `Sam & Me`, which starred Om Puri was her debut feature film which she had composed during 1991. The film depicted the relationship between an aged Jewish gentleman and a young Indian boy, based in Parkdale, an area in the neighbourhood of Toronto.

In the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, this film won appreciation as it won Honorable Mention in the category of Camera d`Or. The next movie directed by Deepa Mehta included `Camilla`, starring Jessica Tandy and Bridget Fonda. This was made in the year 1994. Her movie `Bollywood/ Hollywood` (2002) won her the Genie Award for Best Original Screenplay. She has also been credited for directing two episodes of `The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles` which is a television series of George Lucas. Some other English language movies composed by this veteran film director involve `Heaven on Earth` (2008), which stars Preity Zinta as the female lead and `The Republic of Love` (2003). The movie Heaven on Earth made a premiere at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.

Personal Life of Deepa Mehta
In the year 1993, Deepa Mehta had married Paul Saltzman, who was a Canadian filmmaker. Their daughter Devyani Saltzman is a noted curator, cultural critic and author. Presently, she is wedded to David Hamilton, a film producer. She also co-authored the script of `Cooking with Stella`, along with Dilip Mehta, her brother who was a film director as well as a photojournalist. Mount Allison University had presented Deepa Mehta with an honorary degree in May 2013.

Awards Received by Deepa Mehta
Deepa Mehta has been honoured with numerous awards like Doctor of Laws awarded by the University of Victoria in 2009, Member of the Order of Ontario in the year 2012, Governor General`s Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in 2012 and the Officer of the Order of Canada in the year 2013.

Filmography of Deepa Mehta