Kalpana Lazmi, born in 1954, is an Indian film director, producer and writer, best known for her superb films like Rudaali, Chingaari and so on. Kalpana Lazmi is an independent, art film director who prefers to work on realistic, low budget films, which are specifically known as parallel cinema. Her films attract huge audiences and are often marked as rare and unique woman-oriented films.
Kalpana Lazmi debuted as a director with the documentary film D.G. Movie Pioneer in 1978 and further directed more documentaries like A Work Study in Tea Plucking (1979) and Along the Brahmaputra (1981). She debuted as a film director in 1986 with Ek Pal (one minute), featuring Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah. She was the producer of the film, did the scriptwriting and had written the screenplay along with Gulzar. Kalpana Lazmi was highly appreciated for her Hindi directorial debut.
Kalpana Lazmi then took a break from directing movies and went to direct her first television serial Lohit Kinare (1988) that starred the talented actress Tanvi Azmi. She made her comeback to cinema in 1993 with the critically acclaimed film Rudaali starring Dimple Kapadia, Rakhee Gulzar and Amjad Khan. Dimple Kapadia won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance and Kalpana Lazmi also won accolades for directing the film. Her next film Darmiyan (1997) was directed and produced by herself and the film casts were Kirron Kher and Tabu in pivotal roles.
Daman A Victim of Marital Violence was the next venture of Kalpana Lazmi in 2001. The film was distributed by the Indian Government and was highly commended by critics. It was the second time that an actress won the National Film Award for Best Actress under Kalpana Lazmi`s directorial guidance. Raveena Tandon, considers this film to be the turning point in her career and Kalpana Lazmi was credited as being the able director to exploit the hidden talent in her. Kalpana Lazmi`s next film, Kyon? (2003) unfortunately did not receive as fame as the others, while her last release Chingaari (2006) starring Sushmita Sen was well received.