In a career spanning around four decades, filmmaker Anil Sharma has directed over a dozen Bollywood movies, besides producing a handful. He started out as an assistant director to yesteryear filmmaker B.R. Chopra, working in movies like Pati Patni Aur Woh (1978) and Insaf Ka Tarazu (1980) before making his independent directorial debut with the acclaimed drama Shradhanjali in 1981.
In the subsequent years, Anil directed popular actors like Shashi Kapoor, Dharmendra, Rajinikanth and Govinda in movies like Bandhan Kuchchey Dhaagon Ka (1983), Farishtay (1991), Tahalka (1992) and Maharaja (1998). However, it was the 2001 period action drama Gadar: Ek Prem Katha that catapulted the director to the high point of his career. The film, which starred Sunny Deol and Amisha Patel in the lead roles, recounted the story of a Sikh truck driver and a Muslim woman who fall in love in the turbulent times of post-partition India. A critical and commercial success, Gadar also earned Anil his maiden Filmfare Award nomination for Best Director.
In 2007, he directed the sports drama Apne which featured Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol and Dharmendra in central roles alongside Katrina Kaif and Shilpa Shetty. Despite the mixed reviews, the film did well at the box office. Among the seasoned filmmaker's notable recent directorial credits are the Salman Khan starrer Veer (2010), Singh Saab the Great (2013) and the action thriller Genius (2018), which also marked the debut of Anil's son Utkarsh Sharma. He then directed Gadar 2 (2023).