H U M A N S of J H A R K H A N D

Zeishan Quadri  (is an Indian writer, actor, director and producer from Dhanbad)

 He has written the story and co-written the screenplay for the Bollywood crime genre film Gangs of Wasseypur, directed by Anurag Kashyap. Quadri has also acted in Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 2. He did the role of Definite.He has directed and produced the film Meeruthiya Gangsters.

Zeishan Quadri was born and brought up in Wasseypur, Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India in 1983.He is the only son and the youngest child of Syed Imran Quadri, a civil engineer. Quadri grew up in a strict and protective environment. He has two elder sisters. He did his schooling from Dhanbad, Waseypur. After doing his plus two, he decided to do the business of his own as he was not prepared for taking 9 to 5 job. After getting scolded by his father many times, he left Dhanbad to pursue his graduation. He completed his Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) from Meerut, and did not return back to Dhanbad and moved to Delhi to seek employment. Quadri worked in a call center. His first job as a call centre employ was in Hutch (now vodafone) and he used to get 5400 rs in hand but he was never regular with his job and never got 5400 in hand, sometimes he used to get 2000 and sometimes 3000. He got frustrated with his job of call centre and decided to return back to Dhanbad and wanted to open a restaurant in Dhanbad and become a businessman to run his life smoothly. When he returned back to Dhanbad, his father again scolded him and asked him to continue his studies and do MBA and drop the idea of opening a restaurant. He does not have any option left with him and again went back to Delhi and rented a room in Zakir Nagar. This time he joined HCL computers in Delhi and worked for 18 months. 

So when he was in Delhi, his friend Sachin Wadia, suggested to him in a lighter note about Bollywood. The conversation goes like this:-

Sachin "Are yaar to Bollywood mein kyun  nahi try" (why don't you try for Bollywood)

Quadri "Achha not bad, han theek hai thums up peena hai" (Fine, it's ok, do you want to have something for drink)

Quadri knew that people generally glorify friends to have a snack party.

 But Sachin was doing Mass Communication from Jamia and has got a good knowledge of the film industry too. So, Quadri decided to go to Mumbai and when told this idea to his father, their conversation goes like this:-

Quadri:- "Ham Bombay ja rahe hain"

Father:- "Bombay Kahan"

Quadri:- "Bombay kahan kiya, Bollywood"

Father:- "Bollywood, Pagla Gaye Ho ka" 

So, after a tussle with father he left for Mumbai in 2009. He thought if everything will go well, he will continue otherwise get back to Delhi to join the call center job.

He reached Mumbai and after struggling in Mumbai during his early days, he watched lots of movies and learned many things related to film and cinema. Finally, he decided to write a story about Waseypur where he was born and brought up. He used to be the neighbor of Faizal Khan (the central character of the movie Waseypur) and has observed their lifestyle very closely.

After completing his script, first, he showed his script to Director Hansal Mehta, but he denied him by saying, the script is good but I am unable to find any producer at this time, you go somewhere else. 

After denial from Hansal Mehta, he went to Anurag Kashyap's office to show his script, but Anurag Kashyap was never in his office and he was denied 4 times by assistant directors to meet Anurag Kashyap. 

Somehow Quadri managed to see the advertisement for the event 'The Skeleton Lady', a show which was produced by Anurag Kashyap and which was going to take place at Prithvi Theatre.

So Quadri also went to Prithvi theatre and saw Anurag Kashyap and started following him, Anurag Kashyap him and asked, "Kya , ye kya kar rahe ho" (what are you doing ?). So, Quadri said, he has script from Jharkhand and wants to share it with him. Anurag Kahsyap asked him to write about it and show me tomorrow.

So the night before showing the script to  Anurag Kashyap, Quadri wrote around 40 pages about Waseypur. Next day he reached Kashyap's office and finally, he saw the script and after reading he offered him the role of definite too.

 After that Quadri studied world cinema including filmmakers such as Majid Majidi, Fateh Akın, and Akira Kurosawa.Quadri has worked in the genre of Bollywood crime films. His film "Revolver Rani" was directed by Sai Kabir and starred Kangana Ranaut and vir Das. His first film as a director and producer was 'Meeruthiya Gangsters'.The editing of the film has been done by veteran filmmaker Anurag Kashyap who presented the film along with Prateek Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Recently he visited many cities for the promotion of his upcoming film Meeruthiya Gangster including Aligarh at Aligarh Muslim University.

In 2014, Quadri acted in a movie directed by Vipin Sharma and produced by Bohra bros, as well as a negative lead in the upcoming movie Banana directed by Sajid Ali, produced by John Abraham Entertainment. He is also working on a script with Madhur Bhandarkar for his upcoming movie Madamji starring Priyanka Chopra. He has written a script Oh Womaniya for Pritish Nandy Communications to be helmed by Anu Menon, and a script for Fardeen Khan Productions tentatively titled Firauti.

According to Mumbai Mirror, Anurag Kashyap and Quadri are collaborating on the third installment of the Gangs of Wasseypur franchise, with Kashyap insisting that Quadri writes and directs the film.   

Honours

Jury member at the 8th Filmsaaz.

Gangs of Wasseypur 2

"Gangs of Wasseypur" is based on real life events in the coal rich city of Dhanbad. It is a story about the "coal mafia" that spans several generations from 1941 to 2010 in two parts. On 30 May 2009, Quadri's story was sold to Anurag Kashyap. Quadri negotiated to write the script and play the character "Definite" in the second part.

Humans of Jharkhand run a youtube channel too. Please subscribe to our youtube channel.

Here is the link.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP6HcwFRBkbU423XwKSOPLA