Aparna Sen is an Indian film director, screenwriter and actress who is known for her work in Bengali cinema. She has received several accolades as an actress and filmmaker, including nine National Film Awards, five Filmfare Awards East and thirteen Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards. For her contribution in the field of arts, the Government of India honoured her with Padma Shri, the country's fourth highest civilian award.
Uday Shankar was an Indian dancer and choreographer, best known for creating a fusion style of dance, adapting European theatrical techniques to Indian classical dance, imbued with elements of Indian classical, folk, and tribal dance, which he later popularised in India, Europe, and the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. He was a pioneer of modern dance in India.
Madhabi Chakraborty is an Indian actress. She won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in the Bengali film Dibratrir Kabya. She has acted in some of the most critically acclaimed films in Bengali cinema and is considered one of the great actresses of Bengali cinema.
Ananda Shankar was an Indian musician, singer, and composer best known for fusing Western and Eastern musical styles. He was married to dancer and choreographer Tanusree Shankar.
Agantuk is a 1991 Bengali-language drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray. Notable for being Ray's last film, it was based on one of his own short stories, Atithi. A joint Indo-French production, it received financial backing from companies such as Gérard Depardieu's DD Productions and Canal+.
Ruma Guha Thakurta was an Indian actress and singer primarily associated with Bengali language films. She founded Calcutta Youth Choir in 1958.
Lakshmi Shankar was an Indian singer and a noted Hindustani classical. Born into a south Indian Hindu family, she became an outstanding Hindustani vocalist of the Patiala Gharana and married Rajendra Shankar, brother of Uday Shankar, a Bengali by birth. She was known for her performances of khyal, thumri, and bhajan. She was the sister-in-law of sitar player Ravi Shankar and the mother-in-law of violinist L. Subramaniam.
Tanushree Shankar is an Indian dancer and choreographer. She is based in Kolkata, India. She was a leading dancer of the Ananda Shankar Centre for Performing Arts in the 1970s and 1980s. She also acted in various films, like The Namesake.
Zohra Mumtaz Sehgal was an Indian actress, dancer, and choreographer. Having begun her career as a member of a contemporary dance troupe, she transitioned into acting roles beginning in the 1940s. Sehgal appeared in several British films, television shows, and Bollywood productions in a career that spanned over eight decades.
Mrigayaa is a 1976 Indian historical drama film directed by Mrinal Sen and produced by K. Rajeshwara Rao. It is based on an Odia short story by Bhagbati Charan Panigrahi, called "Shikaar". The film portrayed the relationship between the British colonial government and native villagers, and their exploitation by Indian landlords in 1920s India. It also depicts the friendship between a British administrator, who has a flair for game hunting, and a native tribal, who is an expert archer. The lead actors, Mithun Chakraborty and Mamata Shankar, both made their cinematic debuts through the film.
Kharij, sometimes translated as The Case is Closed, is a 1982 Bengali film by Mrinal Sen under the banner of Neelkanth Films. It is based on a novel by Ramapada Chowdhury. The film was hit at the box-office.
Utsab is a 2000 Bengali-language drama film directed by Rituparno Ghosh and stars Madhabi Mukherjee, Mamata Shankar, Rituparna Sengupta, Prasenjit Chatterjee, Pradip Mukherjee, Deepankar De and Arpita Pal. The film focuses on the various emotional currents passing among family and relatives underneath the supposedly festive occasion of Durga Puja.
Alice Boner was a Swiss painter and sculptor, art historian, and an Indologist.
Kalpana (transl. Imagination) is a 1948 Indian Hindi-language dance film written and directed by dancer Uday Shankar. It is his only film. The story revolves around a young dancer's dream of setting up a dance academy, a reflection of Shankar's own academy, which he founded at Almora. It starred Uday Shankar and his wife Amala Shankar as leads.
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.
Amala Shankar was an Indian dancer. She was the wife of dancer and choreographer Uday Shankar and mother of musician Ananda Shankar and dancer Mamata Shankar and sister-in-law of musician and composer Ravi Shankar. Amala Shankar acted in the film Kalpana written, co-produced and directed by husband Uday Shankar. She died on Friday, 24 July 2020, in West Bengal's Kolkata, India aged 101.
Ratul Shankar is a percussionist and actor.
Sankar or Shankar is a Sanskrit word meaning "beneficent" or "giver of bliss". Shankar or Sankar is also the name of Hindu god, Lord Shiva. The south Indian version of Shankara is sometimes written as "Sankara".
