Assamese cinema, is an Indian film industry of Assamese-language. It is based in Assam, India. The industry was born in 1935 when Jyoti Prasad Agarwala released his movie Joymoti. Since then the Assamese cinema has developed a slow-paced, sensitive style. In beginning the industry were called Jollywood, named for Agarwala's Jyoti Chitraban Film Studio.
Zerifa Wahid is an Indian actress known for her works in Assamese films. Her prominent features include Baandhon, which won the 60th National Film Awards for Best Feature Film in Assamese directed by Jahnu Baruah. and the best film in the Indian Films Competition held at the Bengaluru International Film Festival for the year 2012.
Paltadacho Munis or The Man Beyond the Bridge is an Indian film in Konkani directed by Laxmikant Shetgaonkar. Set in Goa, the film is about a recently widowed forest ranger in a dwindling forest, who strikes up an unlikely relationship with a woman he finds lost and alone in the woods. The film tries to destigmatise mental illness, often equated with being possessed by the devil in rural India.
Premendra Mazumder is a film -critic, -author, -curator, -consultant, -society-activist, -festival-organizer, and -festival-consultant. He has participated in several round-table discussions, conducted workshops, delivered lectures, and presented papers on various topics at national and international conferences.
Ekhon Nedekha Nodir Xhipare is a 2012 Assamese language socio-political thriller film, with some dialogue in Hindi, starring Sanjay Suri and Bidita Bag in the lead roles. It was directed by Bidyut Kotoky and produced by National Film Development Corporation of India. The film was simultaneously made in Hindi as As the river flows.
Manju Borah is a multiple international and national award-winning Indian female film director and short story writer from Guwahati, Assam. Borah also served as Jury Member, Indian Panorama, IFFI 2007, 10th MAMI International Film Festival 2008 and 3rd Eye 7th Asian Film Festival Mumbai 2008, 55th National Film Awards for 2007 Delhi 2009.
Kothanodi is an Indian Assamese language feature film written and directed by Bhaskar Hazarika and stars Seema Biswas, Adil Hussain, Zerifa Wahid, Urmila Mahanta, Kopil Bora and Asha Bordoloi. The story of the film is based on traditional indigenous folktales from Assam, India.
Manabendra Adhikary is a film producer from Assam, India. He was born on 17 January 1963 in Abhayapuri, Bongaigaon. After passing HSLC from Abhayapuri Abhayeswari H.S.M.P. School in 1978, he attended Guwahati Commerce College. After graduating in 1983, he went to Delhi for higher education. After completion of M.Com and MBA, he worked briefly in Delhi and returned to Guwahati in 1990 to start M. Adhikary & Associates, a finance and tax consultancy firm in Uzanbazar. In 2002, he began the construction company M/S Aadarsh Real Estate Pvt. Ltd, and ran his business with subordinates.
Manoj Barpujari, a film critic and a journalist based in Guwahati, received the Swarna Kamal for the best film critic at the National Film Awards (2011). He was a member at a time of three film critics associations in India – FIPRESCI, Film Critics Circle of India (FCCI), and Indian Film Critics Association (IFCA). Representing the Indian chapter of Fipresci mainly, of which he is a member till date, he served as juror at several well known international film festivals including those of Busan, Hong Kong, Port of Spain, Almaty, Dhaka, Kerala, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. Besides, he covered the Times BFI London Film Festival twice as an accredited journalist. He conducted a workshop on film criticism at the University of West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad (2012), and presented documentaries from the North-East India at the media and communications department of Goldsmiths College, London (2008).
Dr Rashmi Doraiswamy is a National Film Award winning film critic. She received her M. Phil from the Centre for Russian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University for her dissertation, 'A Critique of Mikhail Bakhtin’s Theory of Literature in the Context of Contemporary Theories of Literature and the Formalist School of the 20s'. She is currently Professor at the MMAJ Academy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia
Dr. Bobby Sarma Baruah is a national and international award-winning Indian filmmaker, producer and screenwriter whose narrative content on socio-cultural issues in Assam and the Northeast India has been highly appreciated. Her debut feature film Adomya in which she explored the sensitivity and emotional world of women was awarded the best film in the spiritual category at the 13th Dhaka International Film Festival.
Amrit Pritam is a National Film Award winning sound designer and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, popularly known as the Oscar, as well as the Motion Picture Sound Editors. He is the recipient along with Resul Pookutty of a Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Award and two Producers Guild of India – Apsara Awards Additionally, Pritam has been conferred with awards by the state governments of Assam, Goa, and Maharashtra.
Hardik Mehta is a writer-director who works in both fiction as well as non fiction formats.
Village Rockstars is a 2017 Indian Assamese language coming-of-age drama film written, edited, co-produced and directed by Rima Das, who is a self-taught filmmaker. The story follows a 10-year-old girl who befriends a group of boys and dreams of becoming a rock star.
Chalachitram National Film Festival (CNFF) is a festival conducted in Guwahati, Assam. The festival director is Utpal Datta, a National Film Award-winning film critic and film maker.
Romi Meitei is an Indian film director and lyricist who works in Manipuri films. He is a recipient of several awards at several film festivals organised in India and abroad and has directed movies for around two decades. Thoiba Thoibi, Inga Nonglakta, Manithoiba, Natephamda Tero, Chumthang Makhong, Mikithi and Dharmagi Mingda Imagidamak are some of the well-known movies he directed.
Altaf Mazid Rija, known professionally as Altaf Mazid, was an Indian documentary filmmaker and critic in the Assamese cinema. He also worked as a film producer and director in Jollywood. His last documentary was Sabin Alun that revolves around Karbi people. He was later appointed as a jury of film festivals, including 10th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and the 9th Dubai International Film Festival among others.
Ishu is a 2017 Assamese language feature film written and directed by Utpal Borpujari, a film critic and former journalist. Produced by Children's Film Society, India (CFSI), the film is inspired by a novel written by Assamese writer Manikuntala Bhattacharya. Set in a remote village in Goalpara district, Ishu stars Kapil Garo as the titular character, along with Bishnu Khargharia and Tonthoingambi Leishangthem Devi. In 2018, the film was awarded the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Assamese at the 65th National Film Awards. The film also won the Best Film title at the third Sailadhar Baruah Film Awards in Assam.
The 54th International Film Festival of India opened on 20 November 2023 with Catching Dust by Stuart Gatt in Goa. Shekhar Kapur an Indian filmmaker served as chairperson of the international jury. This year a new award category Best Web Series Award was introduced in the festival. 32 entries in 10 languages from 15 Over-the-top media service platforms were selected to compete for this award.
Subrat Jyoti Neog is a Film Critic,, a Theatre Critic and a Playwright from the Indian state of Assam. He teaches in Tezpur University at the department of Assamese as an associate professor.
