Nitya Mehra is an Indian film director and screenwriter based in Mumbai. Between 2002 and 2011, she assisted Farhan Akhtar in Lakshya (2004), and Don (2006), Ang Lee in the Oscar winning film Life of Pi (2012), Mira Nair in The Namesake (2006) and The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012) before becoming an independent director. She is best known for directing the romantic drama Baar Baar Dekho (2016) and the Netflix series Made in Heaven (2019-present).
Early life
Mehra was born in Amritsar into a Punjabi family. Her mother was a fashion designer. She studied at Welham Girls' School, a boarding school in Dehradun. After completing her schooling she went on to study literature at Delhi University, after which she did a continuing studies program in Film Production and Direction at New York University.
Career
Nitya started out her career with being a PA on a film in New York called 3 am. Eager to return to India she began assisting film makers in India and learning the ropes. As an assistant director she worked for the movies like Lakshya, The Namesake, Don, Little Zizou, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Life of Pi. She worked as an Assistant Director for many years on various Indian and international films.
Nitya's first big directorial project was on the Indian franchise of the hit TV show 24 season1, which aired on Colors TV at the time.
In 2016, Nitya directed her first feature film Baar Baar Dekho starring Sidharth Malhotra and Katrina Kaif, co-produced by Excel Entertainment and Dharma Productions.
In 2019, she showran, executive produced and directed the web series Made in Heaven aired on Amazon Prime Video, starring Arjun Mathur, Sobhita Dhulipala and Kalki Koechlin.
She is one of the directors and writers of Chand Mubarak which is part of an Indian Hindi-language anthology Unpaused, released on Amazon Prime Video in 2020. She got critical acclaim for this film.
Nitya joined the team of Made in Heaven for Season 2 of the show in 2023.
Filmography
Films
Television
Awards and nominations
Made in Heaven Nominated for Critics Choice Awards 2019
Personal life
Nitya Mehra is married to Karan D. Kapadia and they have a son.