José Padilha

Born in Brazil, Jose Padilha is a film director, screenwriter, film producer of Brazilian origin. Cinema was never his cup of tea. He used to study business, politics, literature, and economics at The Oxford University. He was a business-minded man. He met Marcos Prado in college and with him, he co-founded a production company named Zazen Producoes. This company earned well and it became highly instrumental in the later years of Jose's life.

 In the year 2002, Padilha came up with his first feature film named Bus 174. It was a documentary and was of his production house Zazen Producoes. As the name suggests, the protagonist was the bus which was hijacked. Jose, through his movies, used to depict the mixture of social and political issues. He stated how the increasing poverty in Rio De Janeiro affected the crime rate as well. These kinds of films are always at a 50-50 state. Half of the people loved it, and the other half criticized it as Padilha showed the police of the city as corrupt. When it comes to money, it was a high grosser earning $217,201 at the box office. The movie received various awards, and it became a highlight in Vancouver and San Francisco film festivals. He had gained recognition and fame. 

Padilha’s next project proved to be a landmark in the Brazilian film industry. He directed his first fictional film, Elite Squad. He had never thought just a fictional film would fetch him such real success. He came to be known widely after this picture. The film ranked at number 1 soon after its release. More than 11 million people saw the movie and appreciated it. Padilha won many awards for this picture including the Golden Bear at The Berlin Film Festival. Because of the success of Elite Squad, in the year 2010, a sequel of it was brought out. It was named Elite Squad: The Enemy Within. The film holds the title of being the highest grosser in the Brazilian cinematic history and max tickets were sold for this movie. It was also selected as a nomination for the official Academy Awards. These two films brought the name of Padilha up with flying colors.

Padilha featured in the two documentary movies: Garappa and Secrets of the Tribe, which received critical acclaim. This creative man refused all the movies offered to him by Sony. Instead, he directed the rebooted Robocop film. The idea was well executed and till date, it is being loved by people. Padilha also starred in one of the most loved Netflix series Narcos.