Bengali music comprises a long tradition of religious and secular song-writing over a period of almost a millennium. Composed with lyrics in the Bengali language, Bengali music spans a wide variety of styles.
Sharada Krishnamurthy, popularly known as Kavita Krishnamurthy or Kavita Subramaniam, is an Indian playback and classical singer. She has recorded songs in various Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Rajasthani, Bhojpuri, Telugu, Odia, Marathi, English, Urdu, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Nepali, Assamese, Konkani, Punjabi and other languages. She is the recipient of four Filmfare Best Female Playback Singer Awards, and the Padmashri which she received in 2005. She was awarded a Doctorate for her contributions to Indian music by Bangalore-based Jain University in 2015. In 1999, she married noted violinist L. Subramaniam and resides in Bengaluru.
Ruma Guha Thakurta was an Indian actress and singer primarily associated with Bengali language films. She founded Calcutta Youth Choir in 1958.
Suchitra Mitra was an Indian singer, composer, artist exponent of Rabindra Sangeet or the songs of Bengal's poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore, professor, and the first woman Sheriff of Kolkata. As an academic, she remained a professor and the Head of Rabindra Sangeet Department at the Rabindra Bharati University for many years. Mitra was a playback singer in Bengali films and was associated for many years with the Indian People's Theatre Association.
Kahaani is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language thriller film co-written, co-produced, and directed by Sujoy Ghosh. It stars Vidya Balan as Vidya Bagchi, a pregnant woman looking for her missing husband in Kolkata during the festival of Durga Puja, assisted by Assist Sub-Inspector Satyoki "Rana" Sinha and Inspector General A. Khan.
Wake Up Sid is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Ayan Mukerji and produced by Hiroo Yash Johar and Karan Johar under Dharma Productions, with UTV Motion Pictures as distributor and visual effects contributed by the Prime Focus Group. Set in contemporary Mumbai, the film tells the story of a careless rich college brat, Siddharth Mehra who is taught the value of owning up to responsibility by Aisha Bannerjee, an aspiring writer from Kolkata.
Monali Thakur is an Indian singer and actress. She is the recipient of several awards including a National Film Award for the song "Moh Moh Ke Dhaage" from the film Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015) and a Filmfare Award for the song "Sawaar Loon" from the Film "Lootera" (2013). She was a judge of Zee TV's singing reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs 2014. She was also an "expert" on Colors TV's Rising Star for two consecutive seasons.
Amit Trivedi is an Indian music director, singer, film scorer, composer, music producer and lyricist who works primarily in Hindi films. After working as a theatre and jingle composer and composing for non-film albums, he debuted as a film composer in the 2008 Hindi film Aamir, he gained prominence for his work in the Hindi film Dev.D (2009).
Sohini Paul is a Bengali Indian film actress. She is the daughter of actor-politician Tapas Paul and his wife, Nandini.
Mumtaz Sorcar is an Indian actress and model. She is the daughter of the famous magician PC Sorcar Junior and Joysri Sorcar. Mumtaz started her career with a music video for singer Mehreen from Bangladesh. She first appeared in the Bengali film 033 directed by Birsa Dasgupta.
Aisha is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy-drama directed by Rajshree Ojha. A comedy of manners, it features an ensemble cast of Sonam Kapoor, Abhay Deol, Ira Dubey, Cyrus Sahukar, Amrita Puri, Anand Tiwari, Arunoday Singh and Lisa Haydon. It is set in the upper-class society of Delhi, India and is an adaptation of Jane Austen's 1815 novel Emma with the same tone as the cult Hollywood film Clueless which is also an adaptation of Austen's novel. The soundtrack of the film, which was composed by Amit Trivedi with lyrics penned by Javed Akhtar, received highly positive reviews from music critics.
Srabani Sen is an Indian exponent of Rabindra Sangeet and Bengali songs. She is a daughter of Sumitra Sen and sister to Indrani Sen. She is a successor to the gharana, which has contributed to the spread of Tagore's music across the world.
Indraadip Dasgupta is an Indian composer whose range of music is well known in various Bengali Films.
Lootera is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language period romantic drama film directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and the second half is based on author O. Henry's 1907 short story The Last Leaf. It is the second film directed by Motwane after the critically acclaimed Udaan (2010). Set in the era of the 1950s, against the backdrop of the Zamindari Abolition Act by the newly independent India, it tells the story of a young conman posing as an archaeologist and the daughter of a Bengali zamindar. The film stars Sonakshi Sinha and Ranveer Singh in lead roles. Produced by Shobha Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor, Anurag Kashyap and Vikas Bahl, the film features music and background score by Amit Trivedi with lyrics penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya and cinematography by Mahendra J. Shetty.
Churni Ganguly is an Indian actress and director who mainly works in Bengali movies and television productions. She received the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards in 2005 in the best actress category for the movie Waarish, in which she played a single-mother's role. She won two National Film Awards for her directorial ventures Nirbashito and Tarikh.
Chinmoy Guha is a professor and former Head of the department of English at the University of Calcutta, a Bengali essayist and translator, and a scholar of French language and literature. He has served as the Vice-Chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University and Director of Publications, Embassy of France, New Delhi. Earlier he taught English at Vijaygarh Jyotish Ray College in Kolkata for more than two decades, and French at the Alliance Française and the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture for eleven and five years respectively.
Sacred Games is an Indian neo-noir crime thriller streaming television series based on Vikram Chandra's 2006 novel of the same name. India's first Netflix original series, it was produced and directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap as Phantom Films. The novel was adapted by Varun Grover, Smita Singh, and Vasant Nath. Kelly Luegenbiehl, Erik Barmack and Motwane were the series' executive producers.
Lust Stories is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language anthology film, consisting of four short film segments directed by Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee, and Karan Johar and based on the concept of the 2013 anthology film Bombay Talkies. Co-produced by Ronnie Screwvala of RSVP and Ashi Dua of Flying Unicorn Entertainment, the film has an ensemble cast including Radhika Apte, Bhumi Pednekar, Manisha Koirala and Kiara Advani with Akash Thosar, Vicky Kaushal, Neha Dhupia and others.
Alokananda Roy is an Indian actress known for her work in Bengali cinema and theatre. She made her thespian debut at the age of seven in the 1951 and later on became part of numerous Bengali plays. She made her screen debut with Satyajit Ray's Kanchenjungha (1962). She received a BFJA Award for her role in Buddhadeb Dasgupta's Bengali film Phera (1988). She appeared in National Award winning films such as Paromitar Ek Din, Utsab, Prohor and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero.
Qala (transl. Art) is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language psychological drama film, written by Anvita Dutt and Muhammad Asif Ali with directed by Anvita Dutt. The film is produced by Karnesh Sharma under Clean Slate Filmz and stars Tripti Dimri, Swastika Mukherjee, and Babil Khan in his film debut.
