The decade of the 1950s in film involved many significant films.
Shyam Benegal an Indian film director, scriptwriter and documentary filmmaker. Benegal is widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers post 1970s. His first four feature films Ankur (1973), Nishant (1975), Manthan (1976) and Bhumika (1977) made him a pioneer of the new wave film movement of that period. Benegal's films, Mammo (1994), along with Sardari Begum (1996) and Zubeidaa (2001) all of which won National Film Awards for Best Feature Film, form the Muslim women Trilogy. Benegal was born in Hyderabad to Sridhar B. Benegal who was prominent in the field of photography. Starting his career as a copywriter, he made his first Documentary film in Gujarati, Gher Betha Ganga in 1962.
Victor Banerjee is an Indian actor who appears in English, Hindi, Bengali and Assamese language films. He has worked for directors such as Roman Polanski, James Ivory, Sir David Lean, Jerry London, Ronald Neame, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal, Montazur Rahman Akbar and Ram Gopal Varma. He won the National film award for best supporting actor for the film Ghare Baire.
Ritwik Kumar Ghatak was a noted Indian film director, screenwriter, and playwright. Along with prominent contemporary Bengali filmmakers Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha and Mrinal Sen, his cinema is primarily remembered for its meticulous depiction of social reality, partition and feminism. He won the National Film Award's Rajat Kamal Award for Best Story in 1974 for his Jukti Takko Aar Gappo and Best Director's Award from Bangladesh Cine Journalist's Association for Titash Ekti Nadir Naam. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri for Arts in 1970.
Dhritiman Chatterjee is an Indian actor. He began his acting career in 1970 as the protagonist of Satyajit Ray's Pratidwandi. Most of his acting work has been in India's "parallel", or independent, cinema with filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Aparna Sen, among others and is noted for his acting skills.He has also worked in English films with well-known filmmakers such as Deepa Mehta and Jane Campion.
SoumitraChatterjee was an Indian film actor, director, playwright, writer, singer and poet. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of Indian Bengali cinema. He is best known for his collaborations with director Satyajit Ray, with whom he worked in fourteen films.
Ghare Baire is a 1984 Indian Bengali-language romantic drama film directed and written by Satyajit Ray. Based on Rabindranath Tagore's novel of the same name, it stars Soumitra Chatterjee, Victor Banerjee, Jennifer Kendal and Swatilekha Chatterjee. Dealing with the subject of emancipation of women, the film shows what it does to them and to those who love them.
Subrata Mitra was an Indian cinematographer. Acclaimed for his work in The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959), Mitra often is considered one of the great Indian cinematographers.
Sandip Ray is an Indian film director and music director who mainly works in Bengali cinema. He is the only child of the famous Bengali director Satyajit Ray and Bijoya Ray.
Parallel cinema, or New Indian Cinema, was a film movement in Indian cinema that originated in the state of West Bengal in the 1950s as an alternative to the mainstream commercial Indian cinema.
Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) is a film and television institute located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Named after Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, the institute provides higher and professional education and technical expertise in the art and technique of film-making and television production. Established in 1995, the institute is an autonomous society funded by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.
Indraneil Sengupta is an Indian film and television actor, and a model living in Kolkata since 2004.
The Alien was an unproduced Indian-American science fiction film in development in the late 1960s which was eventually cancelled. It was to be directed by Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray and co-produced by Columbia Pictures. The script was written by Ray in 1967, loosely based on Bankubabur Bandhu, a Bengali science fiction story he had written in 1962 for Sandesh, the Ray family magazine, which gained popularity among Bengalis in the early 1960s. Bankubabur Bandhu was eventually adapted into a television film by Satyajit Ray's son Sandip Ray, and a play by the theatre group Swapnasandhani Kaushik Sen, in 2006.
The genre of science fiction has been prevalent in the Indian film industry since the second half of the 20th century. Beginning in 1952, the Tamil film Kaadu was made, which was an Indian-American co-production. The 1963 Tamil film Kalai Arasi and 1967 Hindi film Chand Par Chadayee also have science fiction in its storyline. The Alien was a science fiction film under production in the late 1960s which was eventually cancelled. The film was being directed by Bengali Indian director Satyajit Ray and produced by Hollywood studio Columbia Pictures. The script was written by Ray in 1967, based on "Bankubabur Bandhu", a Bengali story he had written in 1962 for Sandesh, the Ray family magazine. In 2018, two films Antariksham 9000 KMPH (Telugu) and Tik Tik Tik (Tamil) became the first-ever Indian films that are based mostly in space.
Satyajit Ray was an Indian film director, scriptwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. Ray is widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. He is celebrated for works such as The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959), The Music Room (1958), The Big City (1963) and Charulata (1964). Ray was born in Calcutta to renowned writer Sukumar Ray who was prominent in the field of arts and literature. Starting his career as a commercial artist, he was drawn into independent filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing Vittorio De Sica's Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves (1948) during a visit to London.
The Cinema of West Bengal, also known as Tollywood, refers to the Indian Bengali language film industry based in the Tollygunge region of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The origins of the nickname Tollywood, a portmanteau of the words Tollygunge and Hollywood, dates back to 1932. It was a historically important film industry, at one time the centre of Indian film production. The Bengali film industry is known for producing many of Indian cinema's most critically acclaimed global Parallel Cinema and art films, with several of its filmmakers gaining prominence at the Indian National Film Awards as well as international acclaim.
Srijit Mukherji is an Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Bengali cinema. His regular collaboration with veteran superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee brought him into the limelight. His first feature film Autograph (2010), was a critical and commercial success, where he had written the script with Chatterjee in mind. His fifth film, Jaatishwar, won four national awards at India's 61st National Film Awards (2014). He won the National Film Award for Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay for his sixth film, Chotushkone, at India's 62nd National Film Awards. His eighth film, Rajkahini had been remade into a Hindi film titled, Begum Jaan, starring Vidya Balan in 2017. His 2018 release Ek Je Chhilo Raja won the 'Best Bengali Film' Award at India's 66th National Film Awards. His 2019 film Gumnaami won him the Best Bengali Film and Best Adapted Screenplay Awards at the 67th National Film Awards
Paran Bandopadhyay is an Indian Bengali film, television and stage actor based in Kolkata. He gained popularity with his works with notable Bengali film director Sandip Ray, the son of notable filmmaker and author Satyajit Ray.
Feluda is an Indian-Bengali detective media franchise created by Indian-Bengali film director and writer Satyajit Ray, featuring the character, Feluda. The titular character is a private investigator starring in a series of Bengali novels and short stories. The detective resides at 21 Rajani Sen Road, Ballygunge, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Feluda first made his appearance in a Bengali children's magazine called Sandesh (সন্দেশ) in 1965, under the editorialship of Satyajit and Subhas Mukhopadhyay. His first adventure was Feludar Goendagiri.