Remembering director/writer/actor/composer Neeraj Vora

Source:Wikipedia
Neeraj Vora (22 January 1963 – 14 December 2017) was an Indian film director, writer, actor and composer from Gujarat. He made a mark in Bollywood with his work as a writer for Aamir Khan's film Rangeela. His directorial debut was Khiladi 420 in 2000. Later in 2006, he wrote and directed Phir Hera Pheri. He suffered a brain stroke in October 2016 putting him in coma. He was working on Hera Pheri 3 before he went into coma and died on 14 December 2017
Vora was born in Bhuj in a Gujarati family in 1963. But he grew up in Santacruz, a suburb of Mumbai. His father, Pandit Vinayak Rai Nanalal Vora was a classical musician and a proponent of Tar- Shehnai. His father popularised Tar-Shehnai as the solo instrument for classical music. As a child, Vora had no access to Bollywood movies. As he hailed from a classical musicians' family, listening to film music and watching films was not allowed. His mother Premila Ben had a tremendous fascination for films, and she used to secretly take her son Neeraj to watch movies. Vora went to famous Pupils' Own School in Khar, Mumbai.  Many famous celebrities such as Falguni Pathank, Kinjal Bakshi, Tina Munim were his compatriots at this school. A lot of students from his school used to attend music coaching classes conducted by his father who insisted on teaching classical Indian music while Neeraj would sneakily teach them how to play Bollywood songs on harmonium. This made Neeraj very popular at the school.
During his college days, he started working professionally as an actor and he received intercollegiate awards for drama. In 1984 he worked for a film Holi by Ketan Mehta and later did a television show Choti Badi Baatien, Circus. He later worked as an actor in Rangeela too, as the film director wanted to bring down the sets and the actor was absent. Neeraj Vora, who had written the script, played the role to finish shooting. After seeing that scene, Anil Kapoor and Priyadarshan called him for Virasat followed by Aamir for Mann and several other projects.
His 1992 Gujarati play Aflatoon which was a superhit was adopted by Rohit Shetty for Golmaal. The play was written and directed by Neeraj Vora. It was adapted from Harsh Shivsharan's original Marathi play Ghar-Ghar. After circus in 1993, Neeraj Vora, Ashutosh Gowarikar and Deepak Tijori got together and made Pehla Nasha with Deepak Tijori as lead actor. Neeraj Vora was the writer and his he along with his brother directed music as Neeraj-Uttank. Later his career in writing took off after he wrote for Rangeela and then Akele Hum Akele Tum, Josh, Badshah, Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, Awara Paagal Deewana, Deewane Huye Paagal, Ajnabee and Hera Pheri, Phir Hera Pheri among many others.
He first directed Khiladi 420 which didn’t do well. After that he decided to produce movies and took up Familywala. After writing Awara Paagal Deewana and Deewane Huye Paagalfor Firoz Nadiadwala they then collaborated for Phir Hera Pheri. Phir Hera Pheri was to be directed by Satish Kaushik, but following the problems with dates, Neeraj Vora got the chance to direct it. Vora was slated to direct Hera Pheri III, but ultimately was replaced by Ahmed Khan following the departure of actors John Abraham, Abhishek Bachchan and Sunil Shetty due to conflicts with Vora..
Awards
2000: Screen Award for Best Screenplay - Hera Pheri
2000: Screen Award for Best Dialogs - Hera Pheri