Vishal Bhardwaj is an Indian film director, writer, composer and producer. He has directed ten feature films, produced five and composed music for more than forty. His directorial work includes Makdee, The Blue Umbrella, Kaminey, 7 Khoon Maaf, Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola, Rangoon, Pataakha as well as the internationally acclaimed Shakespeare Trilogy – Maqbool, Omkara and Haider (adapted from Macbeth, Othello and Hamlet, respectively). He has received seven National Awards for his feature films and the Kerala State Award for Best Music Direction for the film Carbon. Moreover, Makdee has won the Best Film award at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, Omkara has received the Best Artistic Contribution in Cinema award at the Cairo International Film Festival, and Haider has won the People’s Choice award at Rome Film Festival.

In 2014, Vishal began his stage career by directing the opera A Flowering Tree by John Adams in the Théâtre du Châtelet, in Paris. He also composed music for the Broadway musical Monsoon Wedding (based on the feature film by Mira Nair). In 2018, Vishal published his first book of poems Nude, a collection of 50 poems written over the past two decades.