Mrinal Sen was an Indian film director and screenwriter known for his work primarily in Bengali, and a few Hindi and Telugu language films. Regarded as one of the finest Indian filmmakers, along with his contemporaries Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, and Tapan Sinha, Sen played a major role in the New Wave cinema of eastern India.
Pankaj Kapur is an Indian actor who has worked in Hindi theatre, television and films. He has appeared in several television serials and films. He is the recipient of several awards, including a Filmfare Award and three National Film Awards. His most acclaimed film roles to date have been that of Inspector P.K. in Raakh (1989), Dr. Dipankar Roy in Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1991) and Abba ji, in Vishal Bhardwaj's adaptation of Macbeth; Maqbool (2004). He is widely considered as one of the best actors in World Cinema.
Mysore Shrinivas Sathyu is a film director, stage designer and art director from India. He is best known for his directorial Garm Hava (1973), which was based on the partition of India. He was awarded Padma Shri in 1975.
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.
Utpal Dutt was an Indian actor, director, and writer-playwright. He was primarily an actor in Bengali theatre, where he became a pioneering figure in Modern Indian theatre, when he founded the "Little Theatre Group" in 1949. This group enacted many English, Shakespearean and Brecht plays, in a period now known as the "Epic theatre" period, before it immersed itself completely in highly political and radical theatre. His plays became an apt vehicle for the expression of his Marxist ideologies, visible in socio-political plays such as Kallol (1965), Manusher Adhikar, Louha Manob (1964), Tiner Toloar and Maha-Bidroha. He also acted in over 100 Bengali and Hindi films in a career spanning 40 years, and remains most known for his roles in films such as Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome (1969), Satyajit Ray’s Agantuk (1991), Gautam Ghose’s Padma Nadir Majhi (1992) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's breezy Hindi comedies such as Gol Maal (1979) and Rang Birangi (1983). He also did the role of a sculptor, Sir Digindra Narayan, in the episode Seemant Heera of Byomkesh Bakshi on Doordarshan in 1993, shortly before his death.
Shakti Samanta was an Indian film director and producer, who founded Shakti Films in 1957, which is most known for films such as Anand Ashram (1977), Anusandhan /Barsaat Ki Ek Raat (1981), Anyay Abhichar (1985), Howrah Bridge (1958), Insan Jaag Utha (1959), China Town (1962), Kashmir Ki Kali (1964), An Evening in Paris (1967), Aradhana (1969), Kati Patang (1971), and Amar Prem (1972), Amanush.
Kulbhushan Kharbanda is an Indian actor who works in Hindi and Punjabi films. He is best known for his role as the antagonist Shakaal in Shaan (1980), Starting off with the Delhi-based theatre group 'Yatrik' in the 1960s, he moved to films with Sai Paranjpye's Jadu Ka Shankh in 1974. He worked in several parallel cinema films before working in the mainstream Hindi film industry. He appeared in Mahesh Bhatt's classic Arth (1982), Ek Chadar Maili Si (1986), Waaris (1988), and in all three parts of Deepa Mehta's Elements trilogy: Fire (1996), Earth (1998), and Water (2005). After nearly two decades he was seen on the theatre stage at the Padatik Theatre in Kolkata in the production of Atmakatha, directed by Vinay Sharma.
Shama Zaidi is an Indian screenplay writer, costume designer, art director, theatre person, art critic, and documentary film maker. She is married to director M. S. Sathyu. Shama Zaidi Was Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award at ICA - International Cultural Artifact Film Festival in 2021.
Ghayal (transl. Wounded) is a 1990 Indian Hindi-language action drama film written and directed by Rajkumar Santoshi and produced by Dharmendra. The film stars Sunny Deol, Meenakshi Seshadri, Raj Babbar and Amrish Puri, with Moushumi Chatterjee, Annu Kapoor, Om Puri, Sharat Saxena and Sudesh Berry playing supporting roles. The film grossed at ₹20 crore and was declared a "super hit" by Box Office India. It was also the 2nd highest-grossing film of the year. According to Box Office India, "Ghayal had set records in repeat runs. No film from the nineties was even close to it in repeat runs and only Sholay has higher business in repeat runs in the history of Hindi cinema."
Tapan Sinha was one of the most prominent Indian film directors of his time forming a legendary quartet with Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen. He was primarily a Bengali filmmaker who worked both in Hindi cinema and Bengali cinema, directing films like Kabuliwala (1957), Louha-Kapat, Sagina Mahato (1970), Apanjan (1968), Kshudhita Pashan and children's film Safed Haathi (1978) and Aaj Ka Robinhood. Sinha started his career in 1946, as a sound engineer with New Theatres film production house in Kolkata, then in 1950 left for England where he worked at Pinewood Studios for next two years, before returning home to start his six decade long career in Indian cinema, making films in Bengali, Hindi and Oriya languages, straddling genres from social realism, family drama, labor rights, to children's fantasy films. He was one of the acclaimed filmmakers of Parallel Cinema movement of India.
Annu Kapoor is an Indian actor, singer, director, radio disc jockey, and television presenter who has appeared in over a hundred films, as well as television series. His career has spanned over 40 years as an actor, producer, director and singer. Besides acting, he also does a Radio show, named Suhaana Safar With Annu Kapoor which airs on 92.7 big FM. He has won numerous awards in his career, including two National Film Awards, one Filmfare Award and two Indian Television Academy Awards.
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 the 1974 Ramapada Chowdhury novel of the same name. The film was hit at the box-office.
Vanraj Bhatia was an Indian composer best known for his work in Indian New Wave cinema. He was also one of the leading composers of Western classical music in India.
Murlidhar Ramachandra Acharekar (1907–1979) was an Indian artist and film art director in Hindi cinema who won the Filmfare Best Art Direction Award three times: for Pardesi (1958), for Kaagaz Ke Phool (1960), and for Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai (1962).
Shyamanand Jalan was a Kolkata-based Indian theatre director, and actor. He is credited for the renaissance period of modern Indian theatre and especially the Hindi theatre in Kolkata from the 1960s to 1980s. He was the first to perform modernist Mohan Rakesh, starting with Ashadh Ka Ek Din in 1960 and in the coming years bridged the gap between Hindi theatre and Bengali theatre, by mounting Hindi productions of works by Bengali playwrights, like Badal Sircar's Evam Indrajit (1968) and Pagla Ghora (1971), which in turn introduced Sircar to rest of the country. In 2005, he directed his first and only film Eashwar Mime Co., which was an adaptation of Dibyendu Palit's story, Mukhabhinoy, by Vijay Tendulkar.
Nikhil Baran Sengupta was a Hindi, Bengali, and Oriya art director, actor, painter and production designer. He made his debut as an art-director with "Gapa hele be Sata" (1975). His contribution to the success of films such as Janani (1984), Sahari Bagha (1985), Maa O Mamata, Suna Chadhei (1987), Jugantar, Tahader Katha, Bagh Bahadur (1989) and Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002) had always been acknowledged but less talked about.
Samir Chanda was an Indian art director and production designer across Indian cinema, including Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam and Tamil, most known for his work in films like Yodha (1992), Dil Se.. (1998), Guru (2007), Omkara (2006), Rang De Basanti (2006), and Raavan (2010).
Sudhendu Roy (1921–1999) was a noted Indian film director, art director and production designer in Hindi cinema, most known for his realistic art direction in auteur Bimal Roy's films, like Sujata (1959), Madhumati (1959) and Bandini (1963), and glitzy work in films Subhash Ghai's Karz (1980) and Karma (1986) to Yash Chopra's Silsila (1981), Chandni (1989) and Lamhe (1991). He won the Filmfare Award for Best Art Direction thrice for, Madhumati (1959), Mere Mehboob (1964) and Sagina (1975).
Sharmishta Roy is an Indian film art director and production designer who works predominantly in Hindi cinema.
Nabyendu Chatterjee was an Indian Bengali and Hindi film director and producer. A director of twelve feature films and three documentaries, Nabyendu has curved out a sure niche for him in the field of serious and useful cinema of India.
