Anil Dharker

Anil Dharker
Anil Dharker at the 3 December 2008 Gateway rally giving an interview to a news channel.
Residence	Mumbai
Nationality	Indian
Citizenship	Indian
Alma mater	University of London
Occupation	Journalist, columnist
Children	Ayesha Dharker (daughter)
Parent(s)	Vasumati and Chandrakant Dharker

Anil Dharker is a columnist and writer. He is the Founder and Director of the Mumbai International Literary Festival which is held in November every year. He is also the Founder and Director of Literature Live! which holds literary evenings through the year in different locations in Mumbai.

After completing a degree in Mathematics in India, he left for England, where he did a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of London.

He joined the academic staff of the University of Glasgow, where he specialised in Building Services Engineering.

On returning to India, he joined the leading architectural firm, Phoroze Kudianavala and Associates as a Senior Consultant. Here he pioneered the concept and practice of fire safety in multi-storied buildings, then a much-neglected field in India. He initiated the use of smoke detectors, sprinklers, positive air pressure and other practices which are now prescribed by law for new buildings.

Due to his extensive writing on cinema, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting placed him on the Advisory Board of the Film Censor Board where he drafted a liberalised and simplified censorship code which eventually formed the basis for the official film certification code.

Later, he moved to the National Film Development Corporation (then called the Film Finance Corporation), and eventually became its head. During this time, many film-makers who are now household names, made their first movies with NFDC. Examples are Govind Nihalani , Saeed Mirza, Aparna Sen, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Ketan Mehta, Gautam Goutam Ghose.

Dharker was also responsible for opening the Akashwani Auditorium in South Bombay as an art movie theatre.