[2] He has also been nominated as society member of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

The film depicted the gritty life of the Mumbai underworld, including prostitution, dance bars and gun crime.

It received high critical acclaim upon release, and emerged as a commercial success, elevating Bhandarkar into the top league of filmmakers of Bollywood.

Bhandarkar's next directorial venture, the drama Fashion (2008) starring Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut and Mugdha Godse in lead roles, emerged as his biggest commercial success to date.

The film, which explored feminism and female power in the world of Indian fashion, received widespread critical acclaim upon release.

PL Deshpande was a renowned writer, stage and film actor and his literary works are still revered in Maharashtra and others parts of the world.

Chandni Bar, Page – 3, Corporate, Traffic Signal, Fashion and Jail found space in Government's Archival data for Indian films.

He worked at a video store as an errand boy and dropped off cassettes to people from many walks of life including dance bar girls and film stars.

[7] He is a great devotee of the Hindu God Siddhivinayak and has been walking from his house in Khar, Mumbai to the temple for the past 18 years on every Tuesday.

(Interview to TV channel IBN Lokmat on 26 November 2008) Bhandarkar married his girlfriend Renu Namboodiri on 15 December 2003 in Mumbai.

(Tabu in Chandni Bar, Raveena Tandon in Satta, Konkona Sen Sharma in Page 3, Bipasha Basu in Corporate, Neetu Chandra in Traffic Signal, Priyanka Chopra in Fashion and Kareena Kapoor in Heroine.)