# Nagraj Manjule
**Nagraj Manjule**, professionally known as Nagraj Popatrao Manjule, is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter, actor and poet who works mainly in [Marathi cinema](https://www.edgepedia.org/marathi-cinema) and is known for films centered on caste in rural [Maharashtra](https://www.edgepedia.org/maharashtra), above all *Fandry* (2013) and *Sairat* (2016).[1](https://dalitproject.org/cultural-assertion/nagraj-manjule-films-what-india-turns-away-from/) He is from Jeur in Maharashtra's Solapur district and describes himself as Dalit.[1](https://dalitproject.org/cultural-assertion/nagraj-manjule-films-what-india-turns-away-from/) *Sairat* became the first Marathi film to gross ₹1 billion (₹100 crore) at the box office and inspired the Hindi remake *Dhadak* (2018).[2](https://openthemagazine.com/cinema/nagraj-manjule-the-troubadour-of-our-times) • [3](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Nagraj-Manjule)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Breakthrough short | *Pistulya* (2010), about a poor village child's attempts to attend school, won the National Film Award for Best First Non-Feature Film of a Director[4](https://reverseshot.org/symposiums/entry/2468/Nagraj_Manjule) |
| Biggest success | *Sairat* (2016), the first Marathi film to gross ₹1 billion (₹100 crore), selected for the 66th Berlin International Film Festival[2](https://openthemagazine.com/cinema/nagraj-manjule-the-troubadour-of-our-times) |
| OTT work | *Matka King* (2026), a Hindi Prime Video series set in 1960s Bombay, his first series as director[5](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/web-series/news/hindi/nagraj-manjule-credits-game-of-thrones-for-opening-his-eyes-to-ott-storytelling/articleshow/130255892.cms) |
| Writing | Published the Marathi poetry collection *Unhachya Katavirudhha*, winner of the Bhairuratan Damani Sahitya Puraskar[6](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOJoGwDdk0A) |
## Background and education
Manjule belongs to the traditionally nomadic Waddar community. He has said that education was central to his path: he earned a [Master of Arts](https://www.edgepedia.org/master-of-arts) in Marathi literature from the University of Pune and then an MA in communication studies from New Arts, Science and Commerce College in [Ahmednagar](https://www.edgepedia.org/ahmednagar).[2](https://openthemagazine.com/cinema/nagraj-manjule-the-troubadour-of-our-times) Interviews with him around *Sairat* describe his upbringing as the son of a Dalit laborer from Karmala in Solapur district, an experience he identifies as the source of his cinema's concerns.[7](https://tanqeed.com/interview-with-sairat-director-nagraj-manjule/)
## Early work and Fandry
Manjule's first film was the short *Pistulya* (2010), an account of a poor village child's futile attempts to attend school that won the National Film Award for Best First Non-Feature Film of a Director.[4](https://reverseshot.org/symposiums/entry/2468/Nagraj_Manjule)His first feature, *Fandry* (Marathi for "pig"), is a coming-of-age story about Jabya, a Dalit teenager from a pig-rearing family in a village sharply divided into upper-caste and Dalit sections, who has a one-sided crush on an upper-caste classmate.[8](https://scroll.in/article/948139/portraits-of-indias-people-by-a-flemmish-artist-who-lived-on-the-margins-of-18th-century-calcutta) The film won the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director at the 61st [National Film Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-film-awards) and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2013 Mumbai Film Festival.[9](https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/the-caste-story-is-not-over-yet-nagraj-manjule/story-gnTDce3hY91UibJCA4s2nI.html) In the extended climax, Jabya and his family are forced to perform their caste-ordained duty of capturing a loose pig, his self-presentation before the girl he loves collapses, and he hurls a stone at the camera, implicating the audience, in a deliberate echo of [Shyam Benegal](https://www.edgepedia.org/shyam-benegal)'s *Ankur* (1974).[8](https://scroll.in/article/948139/portraits-of-indias-people-by-a-flemmish-artist-who-lived-on-the-margins-of-18th-century-calcutta)
## Sairat and national success
*Sairat* ("wild") is a love story between Archie (Rinku Rajguru), the daughter of a landlord and Maratha politician, and Parshya (Akash Thosar), a fisherman's son, caught in the grip of caste and class in rural Maharashtra; Manjule cast both leads as first-time actors.[7](https://tanqeed.com/interview-with-sairat-director-nagraj-manjule/) • [10](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/regional/filmmaker-nagraj-manjule-holds-a-mirror-to-social-evils-with-sairat-2779026/) He has said he wrote it before *Fandry*, set it aside for a time, and intended it as his attempt at a "classic" love story, rare in a Marathi romantic tradition dominated by comedies.[11](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/regional/discrimination-exists-everywhere-in-india-nagraj-manjule/lite/)
The film was selected for the 66th [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival) and became the highest-grossing Marathi-language film, crossing ₹1 billion (₹100 crore) at the box office, the first Marathi film to do so.[2](https://openthemagazine.com/cinema/nagraj-manjule-the-troubadour-of-our-times) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 100 percent critics' score and an 83 percent audience score.[12](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/nagraj_manjule) It was later remade in Hindi as *Dhadak* (2018), for which Manjule received a writer credit, and that film in turn received a 2025 sequel, *Dhadak 2*; in 2026 Manjule said the *Sairat* story "was complete" and that a sequel did not need to draw on *Dhadak 2*.[3](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Nagraj-Manjule) *Sairat*'s success also changed the economics of Marathi cinema, demonstrating that there was an audience for these stories told with authenticity.[2](https://openthemagazine.com/cinema/nagraj-manjule-the-troubadour-of-our-times)
## Hindi films and OTT
After *Sairat*, Manjule moved to [Hindi cinema](https://www.edgepedia.org/hindi-cinema) with *Jhund* (2022), his Bollywood debut, which he directed, wrote, produced and in which he acted as "Hitler Bhai"; the film stars [Amitabh Bachchan](https://www.edgepedia.org/amitabh-bachchan) and follows young men from a slum built on waste who play football in their own way.[2](https://openthemagazine.com/cinema/nagraj-manjule-the-troubadour-of-our-times) In the same year he directed and acted in an episode of the Amazon Prime Video anthology *Unpaused: Naya Safar*: when he could not find an actor for the part of a funeral worker in his short *Vaikunth*, he played it himself.[2](https://openthemagazine.com/cinema/nagraj-manjule-the-troubadour-of-our-times)**Matka King.** His OTT debut, the Hindi Prime Video series *Matka King* starring Vijay Varma, with [Sai Tamhankar](https://www.edgepedia.org/sai-tamhankar) also in the cast, is set in 1960s Bombay and follows a cotton trader navigating ambition and power. Manjule has said *Game of Thrones* opened his eyes to the potential of long-form storytelling, and that the series moves beyond his usual themes while drawing on personal memories.[5](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/web-series/news/hindi/nagraj-manjule-credits-game-of-thrones-for-opening-his-eyes-to-ott-storytelling/articleshow/130255892.cms) • [13](https://www.yugmarg.com/edition/2024/06/18/pages.pdf)
## Acting
Although he acts frequently, Manjule says he is "not a full-time actor". *Frame* (2026), a ZEE5 film directed by Vikram Patwardhan, gave him his first lead role, as photojournalist Chandu Pansare, alongside co-actor Amey Wagh; he accepted after Patwardhan told him the character had been written with him in mind, and he offered suggestions "as an assistant" while deferring to the director's vision.[14](https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/regional-indian-cinema-news/article/nagraj-manjule-on-frame-suggested-my-ideas-to-the-director-as-an-assistant-23638738) An Outlook review rated the film 2.5 out of 5, praising his performance as an "excellent" anchor of a character study about journalism, professional ambition and the ethics of witnessing suffering, while faulting a climax that resolves more easily than the questions the film poses.[15](https://www.outlookindia.com/amp/story/art-entertainment/movie-review/frame-review-nagraj-manjule-anchors-a-thought-provoking-drama-that-loses-focus-too-soon)
## Upcoming projects
*Khashaba* (2027), which he will direct, write, produce and act in, is a biographical sports drama based on the Olympic champion wrestler [Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav](https://www.edgepedia.org/k-d-jadhav); its first teaser released in July 2026.[3](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Nagraj-Manjule)
## Themes and reception
Manjule's films center caste marginalization in rural Maharashtra, and scholars have read *Fandry* and *Sairat* as central texts of an emergent "Dalit cinema". [Suraj Yengde](https://www.edgepedia.org/suraj-yengde), a scholar at Harvard University's Department of African and African American Studies, argues in *South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies* that the mainstream Indian film industry excludes a Dalit framework, and treats Manjule's two films as the basis for a critical reading of explicitly Dalit-centered cinema.[16](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00856401.2018.1471848) The scale of that exclusion is measurable: according to a study by *The Hindu*, only six of the 300 Bollywood films released in 2013 and 2014 featured Dalit protagonists.[4](https://reverseshot.org/symposiums/entry/2468/Nagraj_Manjule) Hrishikesh Ingle of the English and Foreign Languages University, writing in *New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film*, argues that in a multiplex-centric, neoliberal film culture Manjule mobilized the machinery of mainstream filmmaking to circulate marginal narratives that had remained stereotyped in Marathi cinema's history.[17](https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ncin.15.2.175_1)
Manjule himself frames the work as testimony rather than agenda: "Till now, my life experiences and concerns have been related to the caste system and humanitarian issues. When I come out of it, I will make another kind of movie."[11](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/regional/discrimination-exists-everywhere-in-india-nagraj-manjule/lite/) Commentators have described him as "the truthteller of Marathi cinema and beyond", a filmmaker whose heroes are not pitiful characters but young people trying to live the best lives they know how.[2](https://openthemagazine.com/cinema/nagraj-manjule-the-troubadour-of-our-times)
## References
1. [Nagraj Manjule puts caste where Indian cinema looks away, The Dalit Project](https://dalitproject.org/cultural-assertion/nagraj-manjule-films-what-india-turns-away-from/)
2. [Nagraj Manjule: The Troubadour of Our Times, Open magazine (2022)](https://openthemagazine.com/cinema/nagraj-manjule-the-troubadour-of-our-times)
3. [Nagraj Manjule topic page: Sairat 2 and Khashaba teaser coverage, The Times of India / eTimes (2026)](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Nagraj-Manjule)
4. [Devika Girish on Nagraj Manjule, Reverse Shot (2018)](https://reverseshot.org/symposiums/entry/2468/Nagraj_Manjule)
5. [Nagraj Manjule credits 'Game of Thrones' for opening his eyes to OTT storytelling, The Times of India (2026)](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/web-series/news/hindi/nagraj-manjule-credits-game-of-thrones-for-opening-his-eyes-to-ott-storytelling/articleshow/130255892.cms)
6. [Nagraj Manjule – Biography, Ultra Marathi, YouTube (2016)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOJoGwDdk0A)
7. [Interview with Sairat director Nagraj Manjule, Tanqeed](https://tanqeed.com/interview-with-sairat-director-nagraj-manjule/)
8. [The Art of Resistance: Nagraj Manjule's 'Fandry' calls time on caste discrimination, Scroll.in (2020)](https://scroll.in/article/948139/portraits-of-indias-people-by-a-flemmish-artist-who-lived-on-the-margins-of-18th-century-calcutta)
9. [The caste story is not over yet: Nagraj Manjule, Hindustan Times](https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/the-caste-story-is-not-over-yet-nagraj-manjule/story-gnTDce3hY91UibJCA4s2nI.html)
10. [Filmmaker Nagraj Manjule holds a mirror to social evils with Sairat, The Indian Express (2016)](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/regional/filmmaker-nagraj-manjule-holds-a-mirror-to-social-evils-with-sairat-2779026/)
11. [Discrimination exists everywhere in India: Nagraj Manjule, The Indian Express (2016)](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/regional/discrimination-exists-everywhere-in-india-nagraj-manjule/lite/)
12. [Nagraj Manjule Movies & TV Shows List, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/nagraj_manjule)
13. [Barzakh premiere and Matka King casting note, Yugmarg (2024)](https://www.yugmarg.com/edition/2024/06/18/pages.pdf)
14. [Nagraj Manjule on Frame: 'Suggested my ideas to the director as an assistant', Mid-Day (2026)](https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/regional-indian-cinema-news/article/nagraj-manjule-on-frame-suggested-my-ideas-to-the-director-as-an-assistant-23638738)
15. [Frame Review: Nagraj Manjule Anchors A Thought-Provoking Drama That Loses Focus Too Soon, Outlook India (2026)](https://www.outlookindia.com/amp/story/art-entertainment/movie-review/frame-review-nagraj-manjule-anchors-a-thought-provoking-drama-that-loses-focus-too-soon)
16. [Suraj Yengde, Dalit Cinema, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 41(3), 2018](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00856401.2018.1471848)
17. [Hrishikesh Ingle, Fandry and Sairat: Marginal narratives and subjectivities in the new Marathi cinema, New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film 15(2), 2017](https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ncin.15.2.175_1)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Film people and crafts › Directors, producers, and screenwriters › Indian and South Asian film directors*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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