Devdas is a Bengali romance novel written by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. The character of Parvati was based on a real life second wife of zamindar Bhuvan Mohan Chowdhury, it was said that even the writer visited the village. According to sources, the original village was called Hatipota.
Pratidwandi is a 1970 Indian Bengali drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray based on the novel by Sunil Gangopadhyay. It is the first part of the Calcutta Trilogy. Pratidwandi tells the story of Siddharta, an educated middle-class man caught up in the turmoil of social unrest. Corruption and unemployment are rampant, and Siddhartha cannot align himself with either his revolutionary activist brother or his career-oriented sister. The film is known for experimenting with techniques such as photo-negative flashbacks.
Ferdinand Zecca was a pioneer French film director, film producer, actor and screenwriter. He worked primarily for the Pathé company, first in artistic endeavors then in administration of the internationally based company.
Satyajit Ray (1921–1992), a Bengali film director from India, is well known for his contributions to Bengali literature. He created two of the most famous characters in Feluda the sleuth, and Professor Shonku the scientist. He wrote several short novels and stories in addition to those based on these two characters. His fiction was targeted mainly at younger readers, though it became popular among children and adults alike.
Kismet (transl. Fate) is a 1943 Indian drama film, directed by Gyan Mukherjee, written by Mukherjee with Aghajani Kashmeri, and produced by Bombay Talkies, during the Second World War, while it was in a succession battle between Devika Rani and Sashadhar Mukherjee after owner Himanshu Rai's death. The film was the first big hit in the history of Bombay cinema, and the first blockbuster in Indian cinema.
Tarini Khuro is a fictional character created by Satyajit Ray. Literally it means respected uncle Tarini. Khuro in old colloquial Bengali means paternal uncle. The full name of Tarini Khuro is Tarini Charan Bandopadhyay. Tarini khuro's adventure stories have a touch of supernatural forces in them. Ray's earlier creations were Feluda and Professor Shonku. This character is central to about fifteen stories written by Ray.
Bilwamangal, also known as Bhagat Soordas, is a 1919 Indian black-and-white silent film directed by Rustomji Dhotiwala, based on a story by Champshi Udeshi about the medieval Hindu devotional poet Bilwamangala. This full length film was produced by the Elphinstone Bioscope Company, Calcutta with Bengali intertitles and is credited as the first Bengali feature film. It was released on 1 November 1919 at Cornwallis Theatre in Calcutta. The National Film Archive of India acquired the footage of film from Cinémathèque Française, France in 2016. The acquired footage is 594 metres long or run 28 minutes at 18 fps.
Madan Theatre Company, also known as Madan Theatres Limited or Madan Theatres in short, was a film production company founded by Jamshedji Framji Madan, one of the pioneers of Indian Cinema.
Dosar is a 2006 Bengali language Indian drama film. It was produced by Arindam Chaudhuri and directed by Rituparno Ghosh, the black-and-white film won the National Film Award – Special Jury Award / Special Mention for the lead role portrayal by Prosenjit Chatterjee. The movie additionally stars Konkona Sen Sharma, who for her part won the Best Actress Award at the New York Film Festival in 2007. The film was premiered in the 60th 2007 Cannes Film Festival in the Les Cinema Du Monde section. The film was a sleeper hit at the box office.
Jamshedji Framji Madan, professionally known as J. F. Madan, was an Indian theatre and film magnate who was one of the pioneers of film production in India, an early exhibitor, distributor and producer of films and plays. He accumulated his wealth on the Parsi theatre district scene in Bombay in the 1890s where he owned two theatre companies. He moved to Calcutta in 1902 where he founded Elphinstone Bioscope Company, and began producing and exhibiting silent movies including Jyotish Sarkar's Bengal Partition Movement in 1905. He expanded his empire considerably after acquiring rights to Pathé Frères films. He produced Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra in 1917 and Bilwamangal in 1919. Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra was the first feature film to be shot in Calcutta. Elphinstone merged into Madan Theatres Limited in 1919 which brought adapted many of Bengali's most popular literary works to the stage. Madan Theatres was a major force in Indian theatre throughout the 1920s and 1930s.
Cinema of West Bengal, also known as Tollywood, is an Indian film industry of Bengali-language motion pictures. It is 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.
Premankur Atorthy (1890–1964) was an Indian novelist, journalist, and film director. He was involved in Hindi and Bengali cinema.
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.
Martin Winckler is a French M.D. and short story, novel and essay writer. His main topics are the French medical system, the relationships between caregivers and patients and Women's Health. One of the first TV series critics in France, he has written numerous articles and books on the subject.
Abir Chatterjee is an Indian actor who mainly works in Bengali cinema. He is the son of theater personalities Phalguni Chatterjee and Rumki Chatterjee. He started his career with Bengali television and made his debut in Bengali cinema in 2009 as a lead with Cross Connection. He is well known for appearing as famous Detective Byomkesh Bakshi in two separate movie series. One of the Highest Paid Actor in Bengali Film Industry.
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.
Neamat Imam is a Bangladeshi-Canadian author of literary fiction. His first novel, The Black Coat, a Quill & Quire Book of the Year 2016, was published by Penguin Books India from its Hamish Hamilton imprint in 2013. It is considered the "gold standard for any book which seeks to engage with South Asian politics or history" and a "future classic." He has also authored 2 plays, 2 novellas, and a collection of poetry in Bengali language.
Vikram Chatterjee is an Indian actor of Bengali cinema. He made his big screen debut with a small role in Mainak Bhowmik's 2012 movie Bedroom and was immediately noticed. In the same year he acted in Bappaditya Bandopadhyay's Elar Char Adhyay based on Rabindranath Tagore's last novel Char Adhyay as a lead. Soon after he acted in Ami Aar Amar Girlfriends, Hoichoi, Britto. He has gained immense popularity from his daily soap Ichchenodi where he played the lead character, Anurag and enjoys a huge fan base, thanks to the success of the show. Vikram has earned a lot of accolades for his film "Shaheb Bibi Golaam", where the whole industry has taken notice of his brilliant portrayal of Zico. In 2013, he participated in the reality show Bigg Boss Bangla as a contestant.
Indrajit Hazra is an Indian journalist and author of the books The Bioscope Man and Grand Delusions: A Short Biography of Kolkata published by Aleph Book Company in 2013.
Abir Chatterjee is an Indian actor who mainly works in Bengali cinema. He started his career with Bengali television and made his debut in Bengali cinema in 2009 as a lead with Cross Connection.
