Satyajit Ray was an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter, graphic artist, music composer and author, widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century. Ray was born in the city of Calcutta into a Bengali Brahmo family of Bengali Kayastha origin which was prominent in the field of arts and literature. Starting his career as a commercial artist, Ray was drawn into independent filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing Vittorio De Sica's Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves (1948) during a visit to London. Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. He was also a fiction writer, publisher, illustrator, calligrapher, music composer, graphic designer and film critic. He authored several short stories and novels, meant primarily for young children and teenagers. Feluda, the sleuth, and Professor Shonku, the scientist in his science fiction stories, are popular fictional characters created by him. He was awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University. Ray's first film, Pather Panchali (1955), won eleven international prizes, including the inaugural Best Human Document award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.

Shyam Benegal is an Indian director and screenwriter. With his first four feature films Ankur (1973), Nishant (1975), Manthan (1976) and Bhumika (1977) he was part of a new genre, which has now come to be called the "middle cinema" in India. He has expressed dislike of the term, preferring his work to be called New or Alternate cinema. Benegal was awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 and the Padma Bhushan in 1991. On 8 August 2007, Benegal was awarded the highest award in Indian cinema for lifetime achievement, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2005. He has won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi seven times.he was awarded the V.Shantaram Lifetime Achievement award in 15th international fil festival,2018 in Mumbai. In 1959, he started working as a copywriter at a Mumbai-based advertising agency, Lintas Advertising, where he steadily rose to become a creative head. Meanwhile, Benegal made his first documentary in Gujarati, Gher Betha Ganga (Ganges at the Doorstep) in 1962.

Anurag Kashyap, is an Indian film director, writer, producer and actor, known for his work in Hindi cinema. For his contributions to film, the Government of France awarded him the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) in 2013. After writing a television serial, Kashyap got his major break as a co-writer in Ram Gopal Varma's crime drama Satya (1998), and made his directorial debut with Paanch, which never had a theatrical release due to censorship issues. He then went on to direct Black Friday (2007), a film based on the book by Hussain Zaidi about the 1993 Bombay bombings. Its release was held up for two years by the Central Board of Film Certification because of the pending verdict of the case at that time, but was released in 2007 to widespread critical appreciation. Kashyap's followup, No Smoking (2007) met with negative reviews and performed poorly at the box-office. His next venture Dev.D (2009), a modern adaptation of Devdas was a critical and commercial success; followed by the political drama Gulaal (2009), and the thriller That Girl in Yellow Boots (2011). His prominence increased with the two-part crime drama, Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). His next films were Bombay Talkies (2013), Ugly (2014) and Bombay Velvet (2015). In 2016, Kashyap directed Raman Raghav 2.0, a film based on the serial killer Raman Raghav. His next film was the sports drama Mukkabaaz, which was released in 2018.

Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Mani Ratnam is widely credited with revolutionising the Indian film industry. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri, acknowledging his contributions to film in 2002. Mani Ratnam was not satisfied with his job as a consultant as he found it to be a mere extension of his academics. During this time his friend Ravi Shankar, son of director B. R. Panthulu, was in the process of making his first film, in Kannada. Mani Ratnam had accompanied Ravi Shankar along with another friend called Raman, son of filmmaker S. Balachander, to complete the script of the film.

Mira Nair is an Indian American filmmaker based in New York City. Her production company, Mirabai Films, specializes in films for international audiences on Indian society, whether in the economic, social or cultural spheres. Among her best known films are Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, the Golden Lion-winning Monsoon Wedding and Salaam Bombay!, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Before she became a filmmaker, Nair was originally interested in acting, and at one point she performed plays written by Badal Sarkar, a Bengali performer. While she studied at Harvard University, Nair became involved in the theater program and won a Boylston Prize for her performance of Jocasta’s speech from Seneca’s Oedipus. At the start of her film-making career, Nair primarily made documentaries in which she explored Indian cultural tradition. For her film thesis at Harvard between 1978 and 1979, Nair produced a black-and-white film entitled Jama Masjid Street Journal. In the eighteen-minute film, Nair explores the streets of Old Delhi and has casual conversations with Indian locals.