Renu Saluja
1952 – 2000
Renu Saluja graduated from the Film and Television Institute in Pune in 1976 and began editing—a field which, at that time in India, was dominated by men. She worked with both mainstream and art house Hindi directors. Saluja has thirty-five credits, working on feature films, documentaries, short films, and TV series and is well known for editing 90s Indian classics like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983), Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyun Aata Hai (1980), Dharavi (1991), Bandit Queen (1995) and Calcutta Mail (2003).
Saluja won National Film Awards for Chopra’s Parinda, Mishra’s Dharavi, Mehta’s Sardar and Shukla’s Godmother; the Filmfare Award for two Chopra films, Parinda and 1942: A Love Story; and the Star Screen Award for Mishra’s Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin. Mishra’s Calcutta Mail was the last film she edited before her untimely death at age forty-eight. In 2006, she became the first editor to have an Editing Award named after her.
“I’m a film editor and I think, a damn good one!”
— “Luminary: Profile: Renu Saluja” by Karan Bali. The full text can be found in the Appendix.
