Filmfare Best Director Winners

Top Filmfare Best Director Winners	Best Actor Wins
Bimal Roy 7 wins	1954 - Do Beegha Zameen (1952) 1955 - Parineeta (1953) 1956 - Biraj Bahu (1954) 1959 - Madhumati (1958) 1960 - Sujata (1959) 1961 - Parakh (1960) 1964 - Bandini (1963)
Yash Chopra 4 wins	1966 - Waqt (1965) 1970 - Ittefaq (1969) 1974 - Daag: A Poem of Love (1973) 1976 - Deewaar (1975)
Raj Kapoor 4 wins	1965 - Sangam (1964) 1971 - Mera Naam Joker (1970) 1983 - Prem Rog (1982) 1986 - Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985)
Sanjay Leela Bhansali 3 wins	2000 - Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) 2003 - Devdas (2002) 2006 - Black (2005)
Manoj Kumar 2 wins	1968 - Upkar (1967) 1975 - Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974)
Govind Nihalini 2 wins	1981 - Aakrosh (1980) 1984 - Ardh Satya (1983)
Rajkumar Santoshi 2 wins	1991 - Ghayal (1990) 1994 - Damini - Lightning (1993)
Rakesh Roshan 2 wins	2001 - Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000) 2004 - Koi... Mil Gaya (2003)

Interesting Facts and Other Oddities

• Almost all Best Director trophies have been awarded for dramatic/romantic movies. Comedy is the most ignored genre. No director has ever won a filmfare for directing a comedy movie. The romantic comedy Hum Tum is the only partial exception which brought Kunal Kohli his Best Director award in 2005.
  • Mystery is runner up for the most ignored genre. Only two directors have ever won the top award for directing in this genre. And they are both brothers! BR Chopra won his only Best Director award for a song-less Kanoon, India's first murder mystery. Yash Chopra later won for Ittefaq, also a movie with no songs.
• No director, except Bimal Roy, has ever won back to back awards - that's Best Director award for two consecutive years.
• Bimal Roy is the only director to have won three back to back awards. What more? He has done it twice! He won the Best Director award consecutively in 1954, 1955 and 1956. And then again in 1959, 1960 and 1961.
  • Two hat tricks in 8 years! This record is here to stay!
• Longest gap between first and last win - 21 years. Raj Kapoor won his first Best Director award in 1965 for Sangam and his last in 1986 for Ram Teri Ganga Maili.
• Surprisingly, 6 people have won the Best Director award with their first movies. In contrast only 3 Best Actor and 2 Best Actress awards have been won with debut performances. These directors are:
  • Abrar Alvi for Sahib, Biwi Aur Gulam
  • Manoj Kumar for Upkar
  • Mansoor Khan for Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak
  • Rajkumar Santoshi for Ghayal
  • Aditya Chopra for Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, and
  • Karan Johar for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai