Kolkata is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River 80 km (50 mi) west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commercial, and financial hub of Eastern India and the main port of communication for North-East India. According to the 2011 Indian census, Kolkata is the seventh-most populous city in India, with a population of 45 lakh (4.5 million) residents within the city. It is a part of Kolkata Metropolitan Area which has a population of over 1.41 crore (14.1 million) residents making it the third-most populous metropolitan area in India. In 2021, the Kolkata metropolitan area crossed 1.5 crore (15 million) registered voters. The Port of Kolkata is India's oldest operating port and its sole major riverine port. Kolkata is regarded as the cultural capital of India. Kolkata is the second largest Bengali-speaking city after Dhaka. It has the highest number of nobel laureates among all cities in India.
Dum Dum is a city and a municipality of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA).
Rabindra Sadan is a cultural centre and theatre in Kolkata, located close to the St. Paul's Cathedral on Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road in South Kolkata.
Rabindra Sarobar is an artificial lake in South Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. The name also refers to the area surrounding the lake. It is flanked by Southern Avenue to the North, Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Road to the West, Dhakuria to the East and the Kolkata Suburban Railway tracks to the south.
North Dum Dum is a city and a municipality of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA).
South Dum Dum is a city and a municipality of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA).
Sombhu Mitra was an Indian film and stage actor, director, playwright, reciter and an Indian theatre personality, known especially for his involvement in Bengali theatre, where he is considered a pioneer. He remained associated with the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) for a few years before founding the Bohurupee theatre group in Kolkata in 1948. He is most noted for films like Dharti Ke Lal (1946), Jagte Raho (1956), and his production of Rakta Karabi based on Rabindranath Tagore's play in 1954 and Chand Baniker Pala, his most noted play as a playwright.
Nandan is a government-sponsored film and cultural centre in Kolkata, India. The primary aim of the cultural hub is to encourage and facilitate cinematic awareness in society. It includes a few comparatively large screens housed in an impressively architectured building. The complex, besides being a modern cinema and cultural complex, is a popular destination for the young and the aged alike.
Insomnia was the first psychedelic rock band from Kolkata, West Bengal. The band's repertoire included both English and Bengali songs. The band has an album each in English and Bengali. Insomnia were also quite adept at executing live music for theatre, being part of the act itself, in plays such as Peacewards, a 3rd theatre version of Rokto Korobi and numerous other plays. "Opekkha" from their Bengali album Proloyer Shomoye was part of the original soundtrack of the first Bengali sex comedy movie Aamra.
Hiran Mitra is an artist based in Kolkata. He left his ancestral country home in Kharagpur to study Fine Art in the Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata at the age of 14. His paintings are energetic abstract gestural paintings with the choreography of the human body observed from folk dance having influenced his recent calligraphic forms. He has contributed significantly to the visual stimulus in eastern Indian films, television, theatre and literature since in the 1980s [. He is also known to have defined a benchmark for book cover design for contemporary Bengali literature. His paintings are statements on the human condition and the twilight zones of reality and time. Bold brush strokes, layered washes and sprays and unconventional use of acrylic and industrial paints characterize his paintings. He is part of the Open Window Artist group and has been part of the Painters 80 Artist group in Kolkata.
Koushik Sen is an Indian actor of film, television and theatre based in Kolkata. He is the director of the well-acclaimed theatre group Swapnasandhani. He has won the BFJA awards for best supporting actor for his performance in the Mrinal Sen directed film Aamar Bhuvan.
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.
Bratyabrata Basu Roy Chowdhury, also known as Bratya Basu, is an Indian actor, stage director, playwright, film director, professor and a politician who is serving as the current Education Minister of West Bengal since 2021. He also assumed the same office in 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 an MLA, from the Dum Dum constituency since 2011 Assembly Election of West Bengal. Bratya Basu is presently the Chairperson of prestigious Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi and Minerva Natyasanskriti Charchakendra under the governance of the Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, West Bengal.
Usha Ganguli was an Indian theatre director-actor and activist, most known for her work in Hindi theatre in Kolkata in the 1970s and 1980s. She founded Rangakarmee theatre group in 1976, known for its productions like Mahabhoj, Rudali, Court Martial, and Antaryatra. Apart from thespian Shyamanand Jalan of Padatik, she was the only other theatre director to practise Hindi theatre in Kolkata, which is largely Bengali speaking.
Paschim Banga Natya Akademi is a learned society for drama and theatre in West Bengal, India. Established on 26 September 1987, it is a wing of the Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, Government of West Bengal. The aim of this society is to develop skill and expertise, to document and archive the history of theater of Bengal, to disseminate information, to understand theories, to promote and project significant creativity in the field.
Swapnasandhani is a Bengali theater group from Kolkata. The group was founded on 29 May 1992. Swapnasandhani has been marked by the acting and direction of Kaushik Sen.
Debshankar Haldar is a Bengali theatre actor with a long career in Bengali theatre groups such as Nandikar, Rangapat, Natyaranga, Sudrak, Gandhar, Bratyajon, Sansriti and Blank Verse. Known for his versatility, he played the role of Debabrata Biswas in ‘Bratyajon’'s production ‘Ruddha Sangeet’, Swami Vivekananda in Lokkrishti's Biley and the historical theatrical figure Sisir Kumar Bhaduri in Indraranga's Nisshanga Samrat. Debshankar has also worked in films.
Shaoli Mitra [alternatively spelt as Shaonli Mitra ; c. 1948 – 16 January 2022) was an Indian Bengali theatre and film actress, director, and playwright. She played the role of Bangabala in Ritwik Ghatak's Jukti Takko Aar Gappo. She is the daughter of Sombhu Mitra and Tripti Mitra, who were also theatre personalities.
Sisir Mancha is an auditorium located on Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. This auditorium is regularly used for Bengali theatres. The auditorium is adjacent to Rabindra Sadan-Nandan Complex. The theatre auditorium is named after Bengali dramatist Sisir Kumar Bhaduri and it was established in 1978.
Sourendra Mohan Mukherjee, known as Monu Mukhopadhyay, was an Indian actor who worked in Bengali language films and television serials. In 1958, he became a prompter. His first acting assignment was in the play Khudha, and his first film was Mrinal Sen's 1958 film Neel Akasher Neechey. He had worked with directors like Satyajit Ray and Ronand Joffy. He is remembered for his portrayal of Machhli Baba in 1979 film Joi Baba Felunath.
