Film director Devashish Makhija, whose latest film Gandhari is now streaming on Netflix, has had a long, arduous journey in the Hindi film industry. In a recent interview, Devashish opened up about the three-film deal that he was signed for, with Yashraj Films (YRF), which never took off, and also recalled that he kept questioning his decision to walk away from YRF for nearly a decade, until his first film, Ajji, released in 2017.

Devashish Makhija came to Mumbai with Rs 700, slept at railway station

In a chat with the YouTube channel of Rediff Originals, Devashish shared that back in the 1990s, he came to Mumbai from Kolkata with just Rs 700 in his pocket and slept at Goregaon station for three nights because he did not know anyone in the city. He somehow got his hands on a directory called the ‘Film Directors Index’ which had the landline numbers of all the film directors and would make at least a 100 calls from public telephones and somehow got in touch with Anurag Kashyap, who gave him a chance to work on Black Friday. Devashish prepared a script structure for the film, and helped Anurag with the research, and upon his recommendation, Devashish got a chance to assist Shaad Ali in Bunty Aur Babli (2005).

Scored three-film deal with YRF

“I jumped into the deep end and that film was film school for me,” he said and recalled that since he became friendly with writer Jaideep Sahni, who wrote Shaad’s film, he got a chance to sign a three-film deal with Aditya Chopra in YRF. Devashish was 27 at the time and saw this as a “victory.” The first film of the lot was supposed to be an animated film, which was to follow Roadside Romeo (2008). This was a part of YRF’s tie up with Walt Disney.

But, Roadside Romeo flopped and Devashish’s film was shelved. “Roadside Romeo had to succeed for my film to get made. I was in production for three years. Roadside Romeo tanked and they shut my film,” he shared and said that was “probably the first film ever to get shelved at YRF.” The partnership between YRF and Walt Disney fell apart after that, and Devashish chose to walk away from his three-film deal.

Devashish Makhija directed Gandhari, written by Kanika Dhillon, and starring Taapsee Pannu and Ishwak Singh.

Walked away from YRF

“I lost 3 years there,” he said and added, “I walked away. I said, ‘I have lost three years so let me go. If I feel like coming back I will but I have other stories inside me.” Devashish then travelled across Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Chhattisgarh to research stories based on adivasis and this research eventually helped him in making Joram, starring Manoj Bajpayee.

Devashish said that if that film YRF would have gotten made, “I would be making the Manish Sharma, Ali Abbas Zafar kind of films right now, maybe in my own way, I don’t know.” He said that the YRF deal falling apart bothered him for a few years, and for the next decade, he kept wondering if he had made the right decision. “It got shelved so it was not in my control and it felt right for me to walk away. It bothered me for a couple of years because I didn’t expect that after walking away, my films won’t get made,” he said.

Story continues below this ad

“Every year that passed, I thought, ‘Did I make a mistake? Maybe two films of mine would have gotten made. I am still trying to make my first film,” he said and recalled that it wasn’t until 2016, 10 years after walking out of YRF, that his first film, Ajji, got made.

Devashish Makhija was ‘bankrupt’

In a 2024 chat with Pranav Chokhani, Devashish had shared that he was struggling to pay his rent and had been unable to do so for nearly five months. “I am over 40 years old, and I cannot even afford to buy a bicycle,” he said. Back then, he had just released Manoj Bajpayee-starrer Joram and since the film did not get the kind of returns he had expected, he was “bankrupt.” The film was made on a budget of Rs 1 crore, and made only Rs 16 lakh. It was backed by Zee Studios.

In a chat with SCREEN in 2025, Devashish shared that even Gandhari was almost shelved four times during the prep stage. “Every time, we had to crunch the budget and the number of days. My teams changed, my EPs left, my first AD left. Two-three of us have stood in front of its shelving, saying no, we’ll crunch it further. It’s a Bengal story. I didn’t even go there for a day. I cheated Bengal into Maharashtra. Every morning, I used to wake up and think, ‘No, I need to ensure the film doesn’t get shelved today’,” he said.

‘I’m in legal wrangles’

Devashish had shared that he had had his share of losses while trying to get his career off the ground. He also shared that despite many personal setbacks, he never took a loan, but he took one out when he wanted to make his film. “I’ve come out of prostate cancer, my father died of the Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, my mother died of cancer, I never took a loan. I’ve struggled to make ends meet in my initial years in Mumbai, I never took a loan. How the f*ck I took a loan for a film?” He added, “Joram pretty much destroyed me. I produced it; although Zee funded it, it was a bit of a financial shipwreck. There’s a lot of pressure on me still to pay off debts in the market. And there was also pressure to look for work that would help me pay off debts. I’m in legal wrangles.” He said that he was still paying off those debts and expected to clear them in another one-and-a half-years. “All the money I’m earning now, it’s getting funneled there,” he said.

Story continues below this ad

Devashish has previously directed Ajji (2017), Bhonsle (2018), and Joram (2023), but Gandhari was the first film which he directed off someone else’s script. The film was written by Kanika Dhillon.