Directors Pick Their Favourite Films Of 2016

Sudhir Mishra: “ Abhishek Choubey’s Udta Punjab,  Hansal Mehta’s Aligarh,  Annirudh Rouchoudhuri’s Pink, Shakun Batra’s Kapoor & Sons,  Nitesh Tiwari’s Dangal. I also liked  Gurvinder Singh’s Chauthi Koot in Punjabi.

Sujoy Ghosh: “Kapoor & Sons, Dangal, Pink, Neerja and  Ribhu Dasgputa’s Te3n(though I wonder if I can list a film of which I was the producer!).”

Shujaat Saudgar: Kapoor & Sons, Bruce Beresford’s Mr Church, Captain America Civil War.

Homi Adjania: “Pink, Leena Yadav’s Parched , Kapoor & Sons, Neerja and Dangal.”

Anubhav Sinha: “Gauri Shinde’s Dear Zindagi, Pink, Neeraj Pandey’s Dhoni The Untold Story.”

Nitesh Tiwari: “Kapoor & Sons, Neerja, Udta Punjab, Nil Battey Sannata, Dangal.”

Rahul Rawail: “Airlift, Neerja,  Kapoor & Sons, Maneesh Sharma’s Fan, Ali Abbas Zafar’s Sultan, Dhoni The Untold Story, Aditya’s Chopra’s Befikre, Dangal.”

Ribhu Dasgupta: My favourite films  in order of  release are Ram Madhavan’s Neerja, Raja Krishna Menon’s Airlift, Abhishek Choubey’s Udta Punjab, Annirudh Roychoudhuri’s Pink, Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani 2 and Nitesh Tiwari’s Dangal.”

Mozez Singh: “Udta Punjab, Pink, Dangal and Dennis Villeneuve’s Arrival.”

Tinu Desai: “Apart from my film Rustom, my other favourites of 2016 are Pink, Dhoni The Untold Story, Neerja, Dangal, Sultan, Airlift, Aligarh, Nil Battey Sannata.”

Sanjay Gadhvi: “Sultan, Pink, Dangal, Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Fan.”

Rensil d’Silva: “Dangal, Pink , Parched.”

Srijit Mukherjee: “ Dangal, Anurag Kashyap’s Raman Raghav, Ruchika Oberoi’s Island City, Neerja,  Airlift, Pink,  Kapoor & Sons,Parched, Kahaani 2, Anu Menon’s Waiting.

Mudassar Aziz: “Dangal was a few miles ahead of all of us. Then Neerja,  Kapoor & Sons, Parched, Nil Battey Sannata and my own Happy Bhaag Jayegi.”

Rakesh Roshan: “Dangal, Sultan, Pink, Neerja,  Dhoni The Untold Story.”

Madhur Bhandarkar: “Pink, Dangal,Tinu Desai’s  Rustom, Neerja.”

Remo d’Souza: “Sultan, Dangal.”

 Kunal Kohli: “Dangal, Neerja, Pink, Dhoni The Untold Story, Te3n, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Airlift.”

Omung Kumar: “Dangal. My own film Sarbjit.”

Onir: “Aligarh”

Raja Krishna Menon: “Kapoor & Sons, Pink,Aligarh”

Rajkumar Gupta: “Airlift, Pink, Kapoor & Sons, Dangal”

Sabbir Khan: “Kapoor & Sons, Dangal, Udta Punjab.”

Suparn Varma: “Aligarh, Dangal, Kapoor & Sons,La La Land, Arrival.”

Satish Kaushik: “Dangal”

Ashwini Iyer Tiwari:  “My husband’s film Dangal,  my own  film Nil Battey Sannata, Udta Punjab, Kapoor & Sons, Neerja.”

Vijay Krishna Menon: “Dangal, Neerja and Pink. And of course Sairat.”

Shakun Batra: “I think Dangal, Neerja and Udta  Punjab…all the movies are ‘content first’ and therefore a step in a progressive direction. They all also have strong female protagonists which has been mostly lacking in conventional movies of the last decade. As a filmmaker it’s encouraging to see such films do well at the box office because it gives us the confidence to go further in our endeavour of telling unconventional stories.”

Hansal Mehta: “It’s been a busy year with one release and the shoot of two films. Haven’t caught up with many films but from what I’ve seen I thought Kapoor & Sons was fresh, very well handled by the director and very well acted. I also enjoyed Udta Punjab. It was nicely written, very well executed and well acted. Waiting with it’s exceptional lead performances was also wonderful. I am a SRK fan and I enjoyed his double act in Fan. I also liked Neerja. For the record I have yet to see Dangal.”