West Bengal is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of 88,752 km2 (34,267 sq mi) as of 2011. The population estimate as of 2023 is 102,552,787. West Bengal is the fourth-most populous and thirteenth-largest state by area in India, as well as the eighth-most populous country subdivision of the world. As a part of the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent, it borders Bangladesh in the east, and Nepal and Bhutan in the north. It also borders the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, Sikkim and Assam. The state capital is Kolkata, the third-largest metropolis, and seventh largest city by population in India. West Bengal includes the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region, the Ganges delta, the Rarh region, the coastal Sundarbans and the Bay of Bengal. The state's main ethnic group are the Bengalis, with the Bengali Hindus forming the demographic majority.
Kolkata is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, 80 km (50 mi) west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary financial and commercial centre of eastern and northeastern India. Kolkata is the seventh most populous city of India with an estimated city proper population of 4.5 million (0.45 crore). It is the centre of the Kolkata Metropolitan Region, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world with a population of over 15 million residents. Kolkata is the de facto cultural capital of India and historically and culturally significant city in the historic region of Bengal. It is the second largest Bengali-speaking city in the world. It has the highest number of Nobel laureates among all cities in India.
Calcutta Cricket & Football Club is an Indian professional multi-sports club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1792 as a cricket institution, the football and rugby sections were added when it merged with Calcutta Football Club in 1965.
Tollygunge is a locality of South Kolkata, in West Bengal, India. It is known for being the center of Indian Bengali-language cinema, with filming locations used for other regional Indian films.
The culture of West Bengal is an Indian culture which has its roots in Bengali literature, music, fine arts, drama and cinema. Different geographic regions of West Bengal have subtle as well as more pronounced variations between each other, with Darjeeling Himalayan hill region and Duars showing particularly different socio-cultural aspects.
Tarun Majumdar was an Indian film director, documentary filmmaker, Author, illustrator and screenwriter who is known for his work in Bengali cinema. He received five National Awards, seven BFJA Awards, five Filmfare Awards and an Anandalok Award. In 1990, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award. He is recognized as one of the greatest influential filmmakers of India. His few movies were restored and digitized by the National Film Archive of India.
Jeetendra Madnani, mononymously known as Jeet, is an Indian actor, film producer, singer, entrepreneur and television presenter known for his work in Bengali cinema. He owns the production houses "Grassroot Entertainment" and "Jeetz Filmworks". He is also the Executive Secretary of "West Bengal Motion Picture Artists' Forum". He has been a recipient of numerous awards including Tele Cine Awards, Anandalok Puraskar for the Best Actor and Kalakar Awards (2014) for "King of Tollywood" and many others. He is one of the few actors known for doing commercial action films in Tollywood.
Rudranil Ghosh is an Indian actor who works primarily in Bengali films.
Deepak Adhikari, known by his stage name Dev, is an Indian actor, producer, singer and screenwriter, known for his works in Bengali cinema and more recently, a politician. He owns the production house Dev Entertainment Ventures.
Mumtaz Sorcar is an Indian actress and model. She is the daughter of the magician PC Sorcar Junior and Joysri Sorcar. Mumtaz started her career with a music video for singer Mehreen from Bangladesh. She played in the 2010 Bengali film 033, directed by Birsa Dasgupta.
Neeraj Pandey is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. Pandey made his directoral debut in A Wednesday!, which was largely praised by critics and which later became a recipient of many accolades. His second film was Special 26 (2013), which was followed by Baby (2015), the latter of which received critical acclaim and became a huge commercial success. He served as a producer in Rustom (2016). Pandey returned to directing in 2016 helming the biopic movie M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story based on Indian cricketer M.S.Dhoni which fared well critically and commercially. Besides being a filmmaker, Pandey is also a writer and has written a novel named Ghalib Danger in 2013.
Bratyabrata Basu Roy Chowdhury, also known as Bratya Basu, is an Indian actor, stage director, playwright, film director, professor and politician who has been the Education Minister of West Bengal since 2021. He has also assumed the same office in the First Mamata Banerjee ministry. In May 2016, Basu was assigned the portfolios of Tourism, Science Technology and Bio-Technology, Information Technology and Electronics. He has been elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly, from the Dum Dum constituency since the 2011 Assembly Election of West Bengal. Basu is presently the Chairperson of Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi and Minerva Natyasanskriti Charchakendra under the governance of the Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, West Bengal.
Ananya Chatterjee is an Indian actress who works in Bengali films. Known for her role in Abahoman which won her a National Award. She started her career as a TV actress. She acted in several TV serials and films, including three directed by Anjan Dutt. Her role as the muse of a married director in Abahoman, directed by Rituparno Ghosh, won her the National Film Award for Best Actress.
Anupam Roy is an Indian singer-songwriter, music director, composer, songwriter, guitarist, playback singer from Kolkata, India. He made his debut with Amake Amar Moto Thakte Dao & Benche Thakar Gaan, which appeared on the soundtrack of the 2010 Bengali film Autograph. Since then, he has gone on to compose, write lyrics and sing for many Bengali films.
Indraadip Dasgupta is an Indian composer whose range of music is well known in various Bengali Films.
Kaushik Ganguly is an Indian film director, screenwriter and actor in Bengali cinema. Multiple National Film Awards winner Actor-Director, Kaushik Ganguly is known for making films that explore various aspects sexuality, like Ushnatar Janye (2003), which deals with a lesbian relationship, and Arekti Premer Golpo (2010), which examines transgender identity & Nagarkirtan (2017), an LGBTQ Movie. In 2019, Film Companion ranked Ridhi Sen's performance in Nagarkirtan which was directed by Ganguly, among 100 Greatest Performances of the decade.
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.
Arindam Sil is an Indian actor, film director and line producer who predominantly works in Bengali films..
Indrasish Roy is an Indian film and television actor. He played the role of Tintin in serial Gaaner Opare. Later he played the lead role of Chandrakiran Chowdhury, the male protagonist of serial Adwitiya. He debuted in films with Kaushik Ganguly's Rang Milanti. He also won hearts by playing the role of Lalon in Star Jalsha's Dhulokona.
Jeet is an Indian Bengali actor, producer and television presenter. Jeet started his modeling career in 1993. His first acting assignment was Bishabriksha (1994–95), a Bengali TV series directed by Bishnu Palchaudhuri. He made his big screen debut with Chandu (2001), a Telugu film. His first success came in 2002, opposite Priyanka Trivedi, through Sathi, a highly successful romantic drama, directed by Haranath Chakraborty, for which he won the Bengal Film Journalists' Association – Most Promising Actor Award and Anandalok Awards for Best Actor. In the same year, he acted in the Bengali remake of Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. This initial success was followed by other critical and commercial successes, including Nater Guru, Sangee, Bandhan and Yuddho. In 2005, he acted alongside Koel Mallick in Nater Guru, which was released to critical and commercial success and fetched him his second Anandalok Award for Best Actor. He also starred in some commercial failures, including Saathihara, Priyotoma and Ghatak, and in Jor, which was more successful.
