Bringing Mirzapur To Life: How Director Mihir Desai Mastered The Craft Mihir Desai is a filmmaker most recently known for directing Disney+ Hotstar's acclaimed dramatic thriller, Masoom. But what got him recognition was directing two seasons of Amazon Prime Video's hit crime drama Mirzapur.

Mihir Desai is a filmmaker most recently known for directing Disney+ Hotstar's acclaimed dramatic thriller, Masoom. But what got him recognition was directing two seasons of Amazon Prime Video's hit crime drama Mirzapur, which made household names of Kaleen Bhaiya, Munna and Guddu. Desai's previous works comprise showrunning and directing non-fiction television shows for History Channel and Epic Channel India and several short films and videos which have won accolades at film festivals in India and abroad.

After successfully directing Mirzapur, it seemed apt that Boman Irani's debut web series be handled by Desai. "Boman comes from an experience of doing every kind of role but due to his most popular films being comedies people tend to not remember what a fantastic dramatic actor he can be. Transforming that Boman to Dr. Balraj Kapoor was our goal and we collaborated through multiple rehearsals and con[1]versations to make Balraj the stoic yet broken, mysterious yet vulnerable father that the story deserved. Boman will keep you on your toes and his infectious energy brings out the best in the entire crew, it was a blast working with him," Desai said about directing Irani.

Currently Desai is busy reading a bunch of scripts from talented writers and in-talks with platforms for collaborations. Someone who was always interested in the arts, be it painting, drawing, dancing or photography, Desai in a sense was clear that his career would be in the creative field.

There was a time when his father got a handy cam at home and he started playing with it, doing visual trickery, filming his parents with interesting lighting set ups and other such random things. "I was hooked, I was fascinated and I started watching movies - a lot of movies. All this at the age of 16! Whether I understood the movie or not was secondary, I was blown away by how visuals can convey emotions that sometimes words couldn't. That was it I guess, in school I found a writer friend who had some cool scripts written, we got together and made some embarrassingly epic short films," Desai said.

There on, it was just a matter of accepting that this is probably his forte and every step taken was towards making movies. He stayed busy being creative by joining summer classes for writing, cinematography, photography, and acting. His parents encouraged him to pursue filmmaking looking at his passion for the medium and there was no push back. Mastering the skill was important and hence, film school was the next logical step. Desai used to edit, do making of, cinematography, basically whatever it took to be on set and continue to hone his skills.

For the sixth edition of BIZ Experiences's Creative Inc, we recognize 25 creative artists and brand builders selected on the basis of qualitative analysis and consideration from industry leaders and BIZ Experiences India Editors, who reviewed hundreds of nominations – under the cultural economy. The people featured in the ensuing pages are the champions of the value of design excellence. How some of these creators are using design to address some of society's most pressing problems showcases their potential for the future. Our ambition with this issue is to explore what role design and creativity play to make a better world.