Neeraj Pandey, an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter, and author, was born on December 17, 1973, in Howrah, West Bengal, India. He started his career in documentaries, TV shows, and advertising. In 2008, Neeraj co-founded Friday Filmworks, a production house. He made his Hindi film directorial debut with a thriller, ‘A Wednesday’ (2008). He won a National Film Award – Best First Film of a Director, and a Filmfare Award for Best Director for the film which was a sleeper hit. Other movies he wrote and directed are ‘Special 26’ (2013), a crime caper, ‘Baby’ (2015) a spy thriller, ‘M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story’ (2016), a sports bio with the late Sushant Singh Rajput, and the unsuccessful ‘Aiyaary’ (2018), a spy thriller. Neeraj is also responsible for ‘Special OPS’ (2020) and Special OPS 1.5: The Himmat Story, a very popular web series on Disney+Hotstar. In 2013, Neeraj released a novel he wrote called ‘Ghalib Danger’.