Sajid Nadiadwala

Biography

Sajid Nadiadwala (born 18 February 1966) is an Indian film producer, writer, and director who works in Hindi cinema. He is the owner of Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment. Grandson of filmmaker A.K. Nadiadwala, Sajid has written and produced films including Housefull (2010), and Baaghi (2016) directing Kick (2014) brought him various debutant director awards, and wrote the Marathi film Lai Bhaari that was produced by Riteish Deshmukh.

Sajid Nadiadwala's grandfather Abdul Karim Nadiadwala came to Bombay from a city called Nadiad, Gujarat in 1955. His grandfather produced hundreds of films in Bombay, including the Taj Mahal. The family's base was in Malad, where his grandfather owned theatres, and where they had more than 5,000 acres and streets named after them. 

Hence, Sajid used to watch films since he was a child. Sajid's father also produced films. Sajid completed his CA and law and later joined J.P. Dutta as an assistant director on Ghulami at age 21.

Sajid started his career as a production assistant in his uncle's production house before establishing his own production company called "Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment Pvt Ltd" at the age of 25. 

In 1992, he produced his first film Zulm Ki Hukumat starring Dharmendra and Govinda. He brought together Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty for the first time on the big screen with his next, Waqt Hamara Hai (1993).

Nadiadwala married actress Divya Bharti on 10 May 1992. Ten months later, Divya fell from their fifth-story window at their Tulsi residency and died. She was 19. After Divya's death, he met Warda Khan, a journalist. Khan proposed to Nadiadwala and on 18 November 2000, the two were married. The couple later had two sons.

On 13 June 2021, Nadiadwala along with Sudeep and Nikhil Kamath, Chief Information Officer and co-founder of Zerodha, cheated during an online charity event against five-time world chess champion Vishwanathan Anand. Chess.com suspended their accounts for violating fair play.