Ram Gopal Varma is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, known for his works in Telugu cinema, Bollywood, and television. Varma directed films across multiple genres, including parallel cinema and docudrama noted for their gritty realism, technical finesse, and craft. Regarded as one of the pioneers of new age Indian cinema, Varma garnered the National Film Award for scripting the political crime drama, Shool (1999). In 2004, he was featured in the BBC World series Bollywood Bosses. In 2006, Grady Hendrix of Film Comment, published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center cited Varma as "Bombay’s Most Successful Maverick" for his works on experimental films.
Adoor Gopalakrishnan is an Indian film director, script writer, and producer. Adoor Gopalakrishnan had a major role in revolutionising Malayalam cinema during the 1970s and is regarded as one of the most notable filmmakers of India. Adoor's first film Swayamvaram (1972) is credited for pioneering the new wave cinema movement in Kerala along with Olavum Theeravum (1970) and Athidhi (1974). Most of his films go to festivals around the world, and are released in Kerala. Eleven films he directed, from Swayamvaram to Oru Pennum Randaanum (2008), were screened at several international film festivals and won him several national and international awards. He won National Film Awards 16 times, Kerala State Film Awards 17 times and also won several international film awards. He won the prestigious British Film Institute Award for Elippathayam (1981). Adoor received the Padma Shri in 1984 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2006. The Nation honoured Adoor for his valuable contributions to Indian cinema by awarding him the highest cinema award of India, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2004. Adoor has made only 12 feature films in his career.
Bhupen Hazarika was an Indian playback singer, lyricist, musician, singer, poet and film-maker from Assam, widely known as Sudhakantha. His songs, written and sung mainly in the Assamese language by himself, are marked by humanity and universal brotherhood and have been translated and sung in many languages, most notably in Bengali and Hindi. His songs, based on the themes of communal amity, universal justice and empathy, have become popular among the people of Assam, besides West Bengal and Bangladesh. He is also acknowledged to have introduced the culture and folk music of Assam and Northeast India to Hindi cinema at the national level. He received the National Film Award for Best Music Direction in 1975. Recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1987), Padmashri (1977), and Padmabhushan (2001), Hazarika was awarded with Dada Saheb Phalke Award (1992), India's highest award in cinema, by the Government of India and Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (2008), the highest award of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's The National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama. He was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award, in 2012. Hazarika also held the position of the Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi from December 1998 to December 2003. He was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, in 2019.
Assamese cinema, also known as Jollywood cinemas, is cinema in the Assamese language, watched primarily in Assam, India. The industry was born in 1935 when Jyoti Prasad Agarwala released his movie Joymoti. Since then Assamese cinema has developed a slow-paced, sensitive style, especially with the movies of Bhabendra Nath Saikia and Jahnu Barua. The industry is sometimes called Jollywood, named for Agarwala and his Jyoti Chitraban Film Studio.
Bhabendra Nath Saikia was a novelist, short-story writer and film director from Assam, India. He won many literary awards, including Sahitya Academy (1976), and was also recognised with the Padma Shri.
Luit Konwar Rudra Baruah was one of the foremost music pioneers of Assam. He was an actor, composer, lyricist, singer and musician. He served with Govt. of Assam in the Public Relations Department and established the Culture & Film Division in the 1970s.
Joymoti or Joimoti, released on 10 March 1935, was the first Assamese film made. Based on Lakshminath Bezbaroa's play about the 17th-century Ahom princess Soti Joymoti, the film was produced and directed by the noted Assamese poet, author, and film-maker Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, and starred Aideu Handique and acclaimed stage actor and playwright Phani Sarma. The film, shot between 1933 and 1935, was released by Chitralekha Movietone in 1935 and marked the beginning of Assamese cinema.
Moloya Goswami is an Indian actress who works in Assamese cinema. In the 39th National Film Awards 1992, she won the Best Actress award for her performance in the Firingoti.
Sampooran Singh Kalra, known popularly by his pen name Gulzar, is an Indian poet, lyricist, and film director. Born in Jhelum District in British India his family moved to India after partition. He started his career with music director S.D. Burman as a lyricist in the 1963 film Bandini and worked with many music directors including R. D. Burman, Salil Chowdhury, Vishal Bhardwaj and A. R. Rahman. He was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2004, the third-highest civilian award in India, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award — the highest award in Indian cinema. He has won several Indian National Film Awards, 21 Filmfare Awards, one Academy Award and one Grammy Award. He also wrote the theme song for Motu Patlu, an Indian animated sitcom.
G. Dhananjayan is an Indian film producer, two-time National Award Winner, columnist, author of four books, founder-dean of BOFTA Film Institute. He was instrumental in producing a number of films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi languages. Dhananjayan received the 'Doctor of Philosophy Degree' (Ph.D) for his thesis on Indian Film Industry in March 2019.
The Assam Bengal Railway (ABR) was one of the pioneering railway companies in British India. Headquartered in Chittagong, it functioned from 1892 to 1942.
Adil Hussain is an Indian film actor of Assamese Descent, who works in mainstream Bollywood as well as art house cinema. He has worked in international films like The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Life of Pi and he received the Special Jury Award at the 2017 National Film Awards. He has acted in English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Norwegian and French films.
List of films released in Assamese cinema in the Assamese language.
Prag Cine Awards are presented annually by Prag News, a satellite television channel from Assam. The aim of the award to give support, recognition and inspiration to the Assamese film industry and honour some of the eminent film personalities who have contributed to the cause of Assamese cinema of Assam. The award was first instituted in the year 2003. Starting from 2015, films produced in other Northeastern states were also honored in this ceremony.
George Baker, is an Indian actor and politician. He has been a prolific actor in Assamese & Bengali movies since the late 1970s. He is one of the two Members of Parliament appointed by the president under Article 331 (Anglo-Indian) of the Indian Constitution. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014 and contested and lost the Lok Sabha elections from the Howrah constituency during the Indian general election, 2014.
Arnab Jan Deka is a novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, screenwriter, documentary film director, columnist, TV actor, jurist, river engineer and eco-technocrat. He authored 131 fiction and non-fiction books and edited 14 more books in English, Assamese, Hindi and Bengali. He was also editor of a journal and a newspaper. India Government's official Academy of Letters Sahitya Academy incorporated his biography as one among the top Indian writers of the 20th Century in the End Century Edition of Who's Who of Indian Writers 1999. Manonmaniam Sundaranar University included three of his highly acclaimed short stories in its MA(English) course syllabus. 'NE Live' listed him as one of the "Top 5 Contemporary Writers from Assam who have made it big outside the state also" which include such other literary stalwarts like Dr Indira Goswami, Homen Borgohain and Nirupama Borgohain, who "have not only contributed to the literary wealth of the state, they have also enlightened the world about the life and culture of Assam through their writing." In a critical literary essay 'New generation of storytellers' he has been described as one among "the bunch of most powerful storytellers" who "delved deep into the spiritual and intellectual heritage along the Brahmaputra valley, and also highlighted its environmental fragility."
Prodyut Kumar Deka is an Indian film director and author residing in Assam, India. His films include Dhunia Tirutabur, Samiran Barua Ahi Ase, Surjasta and Borosi. He turned to writing fiction gradually from 2016-17. His first novel Ambari based on the Ambari Archeological site in Guwahati, is published by Educreation Publishing in 2017.
