Deepa Mehta

Deepa Mehta
Deepa Mehta in 2005
Born	(1950-09-15) 15 September 1950 (age 73) Amritsar, East Punjab, India
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation(s)	Film director, screenwriter, film producer
Years active	1976–present
Known for	Elements Trilogy
Spouse(s)	Paul Saltzman ​ ​ (m. 1973; div. 1983)​ David Hamilton (– present)
Children	Devyani Saltzman (daughter)
Relatives	Dilip Mehta (brother)
Website	www.hamiltonmehta.com

Deepa Mehta, OC OOnt ([diːpa ˈmeːɦta]; born 15 September 1950)^[1] is an Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, best known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire (1996), Earth (1998), and Water (2005).

Earth was submitted by India as its official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Water was Canada's official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, making it only the third non-French-language Canadian film submitted in that category after Attila Bertalan's 1990 invented-language film A Bullet to the Head and Zacharias Kunuk's 2001 Inuktitut-language feature Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner.

She co-founded Hamilton-Mehta Productions, with her husband, producer David Hamilton in 1996. She was awarded a Genie Award in 2003 for the screenplay of Bollywood/Hollywood.^[2] In May 2012, Mehta received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts.^[3]