François-Xavier Durandy was born in Paris, France. A trained translator, he speaks English, Hindi, German and Urdu, besides his mother tongue French, and has a limited knowledge of several other languages, including Nepali, Persian and Italian.
After post-graduate studies in translation, German and Hindi literature, François-Xavier Durandy began work as a subtitle writer, mainly for the Indian film industry. He has translated a number of documentary and feature films, including Academy Award winner A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (2015) (dir. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy), for festivals (Cannes, Locarno, Directors' Fortnight, Les Arcs European Film Festival, FFAST), TV broadcasting and theatrical releases alike.
He is also known for his work on Guru Dutt's classics Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), both distributed by Carlotta Films.
In 2015, François-Xavier Durandy has been awarded the ATAA Prize for the best subtitle adaptation of a non-English-language film for his work on Ugly (2013) (dir. Anurag Kashyap, distributed by Happiness).
François-Xavier Durandy holds degrees from the Université de la Sorbonne nouvelle and Institut national des Langues et Civilisations orientales (Inalco), both in Paris.
