There are so many directors who come to my mind for this question. For now, I’ll stick with one guy. Ram Gopal Varma. I agree he is not that RGV anymore ever since his RGV ki AAG came out. But let’s go back to the 90s.
Ram Gopal doesn’t have any formal training in filmmaking. He is a civil engineer by profession but he’s always been a film buff. As per one of his interviews, his troubled relationship with his parents is one of the reasons behind the decision to become a filmmaker. He started a video rental company in Hyderabad through which he got more inclined towards filmmaking as he watched cinemas from across the world.
Ram Gopal Varma had a knack of storytelling. His first movie, Siva, came out of one of the narrating sessions with actor Nagarjuna. The story is about violent college politics and was based on his experiences as a student at Siddhartha Engineering College in Vijawvada.
Ram Gopal is the one who introduced the Indian cinema to the underworld of Mumbai. He introduced the film-noir style of filmmaking in India which is largely attributed with eminent Hollywood directors like Martin Scorsese. In fact, International media gave Ram Gopal’s style a new sub-genre, Mumbai-noir. Satya and Company are the movies in this genre.
He also experimented with other genres like horror and comedy. Raat is one of the best horror movies ever made. It didn’t have the “in your face” horror elements, or the typical jump scares. It had a believable story. Bhoot is his another masterpiece in horror cinema.
His other notable movies are Kaun, Rangeela, Sarkar. Ram Gopal has certainly contributed a lot to the Indian cinema and can easily be considered among the best directors we ever had.
Images and information from Ram Gopal Varma - Wikipedia