Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, was a Bengali novelist and short story writer of the early 20th century. He generally wrote about the lives of Bengali family and society in cities and villages. However, his keen powers of observation, great sympathy for fellow human beings, a deep understanding of human psychology, an easy and natural writing style, and freedom from political biases and social prejudices enable his writing to transcend barriers and appeal to all Indians. He remains the most popular, translated, and adapted Indian author of all time.
SoumitraChatterjee was an Indian film actor, play-director, playwright, writer, thespian and poet. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of Indian cinema. He is best known for his collaborations with director Satyajit Ray, with whom he worked in fourteen films.
Sukumar Ray was a Bengali writer and poet from British India. He is remembered mainly for his writings for children. He was the son of children's story writer Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury and the father of Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray.
Malay Roy Choudhury was an Indian Bengali poet, playwright, short story writer, essayist and novelist who founded the Hungryalist movement in the 1960s.
The Pashchimbanga Bangla Akademi is the official regulatory body of the Bengali language in India. It was founded on 20 May 1986 in Kolkata to act as the official authority of the language and is entrusted with the responsibility of reforming Bengali spelling and grammar, compiling dictionaries, encyclopedias and terminologies and promoting Bengali language and culture in West Bengal. Though the Akademi has no enforcement power over their rules and regulations, they are widely accepted by the Governments of West Bengal and Tripura as well as a considerable number of private publishing houses and institutions such as the Oxford University Press and the Ramakrishna Mission.
Premendra Mitra was an Indian poet, writer and film director in the Bengali language. He was also a practitioner of Bengali science fiction. His critique of humanity led him to believe that for it to survive, human beings had to "forget their differences and be united".
Narayan Gangopadhyay, also known as Narayan Ganguly, was an Indian novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer, and one of the leading writers of modern Bengali literature. He introduced the endearing character of Tenida in his famous stories of children's literature. He took up "Narayan" as his pen name. He married his brother in law's niece Renuka Devi, with whom he had his only daughter Basabi (Bani). His wife Renuka Ganguly and daughter Basabi Roy Chowdhury were also eminent writers and teachers. Renuka Ganguly died on 10 February 2010 whereas, Basabi Roy Chowdhury recently died on 17 December 2021, and was survived by 6 children, and grandchildren.
Jagadish Gupta was an Indian poet, novelist and short story writer. Known for his realistic view of life, strange character portrayal and unique narrative style, he was one of the major exponents of modern Bengali literature.
Buddhadeb Guha was an Indian Bengali language fiction writer, singer and painter.
Ashapurna Devi, also Ashapoorna Devi or Ashapurna Debi, was a prominent Indian novelist and poet in Bengali. In 1976, she was awarded the Jnanpith Award and Padma Shri by the Government of India, D.Litt. by the Universities of Jabalpur, Rabindra Bharati, Burdwan and Jadavpur. Vishwa Bharati University honoured her with Deshikottam in 1989. For her contribution as a novelist and short story writer, the Sahitya Akademi conferred its highest honour, the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, in 1994.
Sanjib Chattopadhyay is an Indian Bengali novelist and writer of short stories. His style is characterized by use of short satirical sentences mixed with very lively language.
Birendra Krishna Bhadra (1905–1991) was a radio broadcaster, playwright, actor, narrator and theatre director from Kolkata, India and a contemporary of Pankaj Mallick and Kazi Nazrul Islam. He worked for the All India Radio, India's National Radio broadcaster for several years during its early, starting 1930s, and during this period he produced and adapted several plays.
Byomkes Chakrabarti (1923–1981) was a Bengali research worker on ethnic languages. He was also a educationist and a poet. His major contribution to linguistics was in finding out some basic relationship between Santali and the Bengali language. He showed how the Bengali language has unique characteristics, absent in other Indian languages, under the influence of Santali. His contribution was fundamental to research on the origin and development of the Bengali language and provided scopes of research in newer horizons in linguistics.
Bratyabrata Basu Roy Chowdhury, also known as Bratya Basu, is an Indian actor, stage director, playwright, film director, professor and politician who has been the Education Minister of West Bengal since 2021. He has also assumed the same office in the First Mamata Banerjee ministry. In May 2016, Basu was assigned the portfolios of Tourism, Science Technology and Bio-Technology, and Information Technology and Electronics. He has been elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly, from the Dum Dum constituency since the 2011 Assembly Election of West Bengal. Basu is presently the Chairperson of Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi and Minerva Natyasanskriti Charchakendra under the governance of the Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, West Bengal.
Chapal Bhaduri is the last living female impersonator in Bengali theatre and perhaps even in Indian theatre. He did female impersonation in Jatra, a form of Bengali folk theatre as Chapalrani. In 2010, he starred in a Bengali Film Arekti Premer Golpo which was directed by Kaushik Ganguly and written by Ganguly and Rituparno Ghosh.
Anita Agnihotri is an Indian Bengali writer and poet. Her works have been translated into several major Indian and foreign languages, including English, Swedish and German. She is also a retired civil servant.
Dinesh Chandra Chattopadhyay was a Bengali writer and editor.
