Directors Sanjay Leela and Pooja Bhatt shared their birthday on Sunday and while the former turned 50 years of age, Pooja turned 41.

Bhansali commenced his career in Bollywood as an assistant to Vidhu Vinod Chopra and was involved in the making of films including 'Parinda', '1942: A Love Story' and 'Kareeb'.

However, both had a conflict when Bhansali refused to direct 'Kareeb' and made his directorial debut with 'Khamoshi: The Musical'.

The film. in which Bansali portrayed the narration of a daughter's struggle to communicate with her deaf mute parents failed to grab its place commercially but was critically acclaimed.

His second film was a triangular love story, 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam', which established his individualistic niche for visual splendour and creating auras of celebration and festivity. The film was a great success and won numerous awards.

Bansali's next venture 'Devdas' was an ode to the novel with the same name. It was both commercially and critically successful; and bagged major Bollywood awards as well as was the Indian submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The music also received a significant reception at Cannes, where it premiered.

His film 'Black', which Time Magazine (Europe) selected as fifth of the 10 Best Movies of the Year 2005 from across the globe, broke a record nationally at the 2006 Filmfare Awards, winning eleven awards.

After these successful ventures, he tasted his first flop with 'Sawariya' and then in 'Guzaarish'.

The director is presently shooting for his film 'Ram Leela' that stars Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone in the titular roles.

Besides films, the director is also making his television debut as a director with his upcoming daily serial 'Saraswatichandra' based on the famous Gujarati novel Saraswatichandra written by Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi.


Director Pooja Bhatt on the other hand started her career as an actress.

She made her acting debut at age 17, in 1989 with 'Daddy', a TV film directed by her father Mahesh Bhatt. In the film she portrayed a soul- searching teenage girl in an estranged relationship with her alcoholic father, played by actor Anupam Kher.

Her biggest solo hit and her big screen debut came with a musical hit, 'Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin' (1991), which bagged her the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award for the film.

Some of her well-known films in the 1990s are 'Sadak', 'Junoon', 'Sir', 'Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayee', 'Tadipaar', 'Ghuneghar', 'Naaraaz', 'Hum Dono', 'Angrakshak', 'Chaahat', 'Tamanna', super-hit and multi-starrer 'Border' and 'Zakhm'.

She made her last film appearance in 'Everybody Says I'm Fine!' in 2001.

She has since then focused on producing and directing. She made her directorial debut with 'Paap' in 2004, starring John Abraham and Udita Goswami. She has made four more directorial ventures including 'Holiday' (2006), 'Dhokha' (2007), 'Kajraare' (2010) and 'Jism 2'.