Sunil Sukthankar

The film received wide critical acclaim and won several awards including the Best Film at the 32nd Maharashtra State Film Awards and the Best Film on Other Social Issues at the 43rd National Film Awards.

The film, produced by Stree Vani, was well received and went on to win the National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film on Family Welfare at the 33rd National Film Awards.

It was honoured for "its realistic portrayal of poor, oppressed housewife who succeeds in her determined effort to rehabilitate herself and realise her potential to be on her own".

The film was adjudged the Best Educational / Motivational / Instructional Film at the 35th National Film Awards.

Sumitra Bhave (12 January 1943 19 April 2021) and Sunil Sukthankar (born 31 May 1966) were an Indian filmmaker duo working predominantly in Marathi cinema and Marathi theatre.

Bhave and Sukthankar had made seventeen feature films, more than fifty short films, and four TV serials; all of which had been written by Bhave.

Bhave was born on 12 January 1943 in Pune.

She completed her graduation from Fergusson College, Pune, and received a master's degree in Political and Science Sociology from Pune University.

She received another master's degree in Political Science and Sociology and a Diploma in Rural Welfare from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and later began her voluntary work for various organisations.

She taught at the Karve Institute of Social Service, Pune, for a decade and later worked as a Project Manager for Community Aid and Sponsorship Program, Mumbai.

Bhave has published various investigation and research papers on the subject.

She worked as a Marathi language newsreader with All India Radio, New Delhi.

Bhave had a daughter, who is also a writer.

On 6 April 2021, Bhave was admitted to Sahyadri Hospital in Pune for lung infection.

She was suffering from Interstitial lung disease which was detected earlier in March 2021.

She died on the morning of 19 April 2021 due to respiratory failure and lung fibrosis.

At the time of her death, she was working on three films and their scripts.

Both films received wide critical acclaim; Vastupurush was awarded the Best Feature Film in Marathi at the 50th National Film Awards, Dahavi Fa was adjudged the Best Film at the 40th Maharashtra State Film Awards, and the duo won the Best Director award.

The duo considers Vastupurush as their "important and favourite film".

At the 64th National Film Awards, their feature film Kaasav won the prestigious President Golden Lotus National Award.

Sukthankar was born on 31 May 1966 in Karad.

He completed his graduation in Commerce from Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce, Pune and joined the Film and Television Institute of India to pursue a course in film direction.

His diploma film was titled Anuttar.

As a theatre activist, Sukthankar wrote and directed several plays and street plays.

In 1985, while working as the Director of Research Project for Stree Vani, Bhave made a debut short film Bai (Woman) about a woman from the slums to display her strength to survive adversities.

After a career as a theatre activist, Sukthankar was introduced to Bhave through her daughter while she was making her debut short film Bai (1985).

After completing his graduation and film direction course from the Film and Television Institute of India, he joined Bhave again as an assistant and worked on three short films.

Her next short film Paani, made in 1987, also fetched her another National Film Award.

Sunil Sukthankar, a Film and Television Institute of India graduate (1989) is also an actor and a lyricist.

He has written more than 90 songs for their own films as well as various other Marathi and Hindi films.

Bhave later made several other short films like Mukti (1990), Chakori (1992), Laha (1994), and Three Faces of Tomorrow.

Bhave has received a Chitra Ratna Puraskar and Kamdhenu Award for literary contribution.

The duo had won various national and international accolades for the films Doghi (1995), Dahavi Fa (2002), Vastupurush (2002), Devrai (2004), Astu (2016) and Kaasav (2017).

In 1995, Bhave collaborated with Sukthankar as a director and made their film debut with a Marathi film Doghi (Two Sisters).

The film depicts a story about two sisters and their mother caught in rigid and superstitious social structure.

Their next film Zindagi Zindabad (Long live, Life!) was made in Hindi in 1997.

The film was based on a real-life story of a teenager who risked his own life to care for a person stigmatised by HIV/AIDS.

In 2002, two of the films made by Bhave and Sukthankar, both made in Marathi, Dahavi Fa (10th F) and Vastupurush (Guardian Spirit of the House), were released.

The filmmaker duo initially approached the Children's Film Society to produce Dahavi Fa but the organization refused the script for not fitting "into their 'objectives'".

The film was finally funded by their friends and was released under the duo's production company "Vichitra Nirmiti".