Srijit Mukherji

Last updated

Srijit Mukherji
Srijit Mukherji on screening of Begum Jaan.jpg
Mukherji on screening of Begum Jaan
Born (1977-09-23) September 23, 1977 (age 46)
NationalityIndian
Occupations
  • Director
  • Screenwriter
  • Actor
Years active2010–present
Spouse
(m. 2019)
Relatives Arati Mukhopadhyay (Aunt)

Srijit Mukherji (born 23 September 1977) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Bengali cinema. His regular collaboration with veteran actor 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. [1] 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. [2]

Contents

Early life

Mukherji completed his schooling from Dolna Day School, Kolkata [3] and South Point High School, Kolkata, [4] before studying economics at Presidency College, Kolkata. He went on to complete his MA and MPhil in environmental economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, [5] parallelly working as a social scientist in the Urban Transport and Pollution Sector with TERI in New Delhi. He quit his Ph.D. while in his first year, to join IRI Symphony, Bangalore as an econometrician and business analyst. After working in Bangalore and a brief stint in Milan, he quit his job to actively pursue theatre and films. [6]

Career

Even while working as an economist and statistician, he was actively involved with the English professional theatre circuit in Delhi and Bangalore. He has acted in Madness, adapted from Paulo Coelho's Veronica Decides To Die ; Manoj Mitra's The Orchard of Banchharam; Badal Sircar's The Other Side of History; Sunil Ganguly's Pratidwandi – The Adversary, adapted for the stage from Satyajit Ray's film of the same name and Lucknow 76. He wrote and directed Mindgame, an Indian adaptation of Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men , at the Alliance Francaise De Bangalore in 2006. In April 2008, he formed his own troupe, Pandora's Act, whose first production, Feluda Pherot! at Rangashankara in July 2008 was a runaway success and was the first ever non-canonical dramatisation of Satyajit Ray's sleuth Feluda. [5] Barun Chanda, Ray's leading man in Seemabodhho, and Parambrata Chatterjee, the screen Topshe and film youth icon, starred in this production. In 2009, he wrote, directed and acted in the English play Checkmate, a non-canonical re-interpretation of Byomkesh Bakshi, Saradindu Bandopadhyay's sleuth. [7] He was an assistant director, lyricist and actor in both Anjan Dutt's Madly Bangalee and Aparna Sen's Iti Mrinalini , in 2009. [8] He has also written lyrics for films like Cross Connection , Le Chakka and Josh, TV serials like Coffee and More and Dadagiri and non-film albums of Usha Uthup.

2010–2012

In 2010 Mukherji directed his debut feature film, the award-winning blockbuster – Autograph (starring Prosenjit Chatterjee, Indraneil Sengupta and Nandana Sen) which was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. The film won 41 awards and was an official selection at Abu Dhabi International Film Festival 2010, MIAAC Film Festival in New York 2010, Glasgow International Film Festival 2011 and London Indian Film Festival 2011. [9]

In the same year he also made his acting debut on Bengali television in the Rituparno Ghosh scripted mega serial Gaaner Opare , produced by Ideas Entertainment. [10]

His work in 2011 included a major role in Anindya Banerjee's Chaplin starring Rudranil Ghosh and his second film, Baishe Srabon starring Prosenjit Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, Raima Sen, Abir Chatterjee and Gautam Ghose, who returned to acting after a hiatus of 29 years. Baishe Srabon was recently the official selection at the Dubai International Film Festival and the closing film at the London Indian Film Festival, and had a 105-day run at the box office making it the biggest blockbuster of the year. Baishe Srabon has won 41 awards. His third feature film was Hemlock Society , a romantic satire set at the backdrop of a school which teaches aspirants how to successfully commit suicide. It featured Parambrata Chatterjee and Koel Mallick and won 21 awards.

2013–2016

Mukherji's fourth film, Mishawr Rawhoshyo , based on Kakababu with Prasenjit Chattopadhyay playing the lead character and Indraneil Sengupta playing the role of Hani Alkadi, has been declared as one of the biggest blockbusters ever and the highest earning urban mainstream film. He has acted in films like Dutta Vs Dutta , Bapi Bari Jaa and the national award-winning Shobdo . His fifth film Jaatishwar , featuring Prosenjit Chatterjee and Jisshu Sengupta, is generally considered to be the best in his career and most critically acclaimed. It is the musical bridge between two centuries of Bengali culture and a biopic cum a musical cum a reincarnation drama. At the 61st National Awards 2014, the highest film honour in India, it won 4 national awards for Music Direction, Playback Singing, Costume and Make up. This was the highest tally for a film in India this year, and the second highest ever for a Bengali film. It also swept the Mirchi Music Awards in 2015 winning 7 awards. The following year at the 62nd National Awards 2015, Chotushkone won him the Best Director and Best Original Screenplay awards, along with winning the Best Cinematography.

He also received the Young Achiever Award from Rotary International, the prestigious Shera Bangali Award from ABP Anando and the Shoilojanando Mukhopadhyay Memorial Award in 2012 for his contribution in the field of film direction. In 2013 he received the Uttam Kumar Memorial Award from the Government of West Bengal becoming the youngest director to achieve this. He has also received the oldest film award in India, the BFJA award, for remarkable contribution to Bengali Cinema in the last few years. [11]

2017–2020

Mukherji has made his directorial debut in Bollywood with the film Begum Jaan which is a remake of his earlier Bengali film Rajkahini. Vidya Balan plays the lead role of a brothel's madam during the partition of India in 1947. [12] [13] He had two releases in 2018, Uma and Ek Je Chhilo Raja. Both featured Jisshu Sengupta and were box office superhits. The former went to 10 film festivals around the world and won 6 awards while the latter won 23 awards and went to 7 film festivals around the world including Palm Springs International Film Festival. In 2018, it was reported that Mukherji will be directing a Junglee Pictures produced yet to be titled web-series in Hindi, based on the novel of noted novelist and blogger Arnab Ray, The Mahabharata Murders. This will be his first foray into web-series direction. [14] In 2019, he has three releases Shahjahan Regency, Vinci Da and Gumnaami, the last two being both critical and commercial successes along with being a festival favourite. Gumnaami won the Best Bengali Feature Film and Best Adapted Screenplay Awards at the 67th National Film Awards.

He has also completed another web-series, Feluda Pherot, which is based on two Feluda stories written by Satyajit Ray, Chhinomostar Obhishaap and Darjeeling Jomjomat.[ clarification needed ] [15]

2021-present

After no films in 2020 due to COVID-19, in 2021 he had 4 releases, out of which 2 were Hindi films. He directed Kakababur Protyaborton , which was based on the third film of the Kakababu franchise, it had Prosenjit Chatterjee as Kakababu, Aryann Bhowmik, Anirban Chakrabarti in the lead roles. His next release wass X=Prem . A black and white romance drama film with debutant actors, the film earned critical praise and received several awards and nominations at the Filmfare Awards Bangla [16] and WBFJA Awards.

His next projects that year were two Bollywood films: Sherdil: The Pilibhit Saga and Shabaash Mithu . The latter was the biography of one of the most influential Indian female cricketer Mithali Raj. [17]

In 2023, he released Dawshom Awbotaar , a neo-noir crime thriller as the 4th installment Srijit Mukherji's Cop Universe. It served as the prequel crossover of his previous films Baishe Srabon and Vinci Da . It became a huge box office success emerged as one of the highest grossing Bengali films of 2023. [18] The film received mulltiple nomination and awards at the Filmfare Awards Bangla and WBFJA Awards. [19]

His first release in 2024 was the fantasy romantic comedy film Oti Uttam . For the first time ever in Indian Cinema, veteran actor Uttam Kumar appeared in the movie through Visual effects by using his scenes from his 56 existing old movies. [20]

Filmography

As director

Denotes films or web series that have not yet been released
YearFilmDirectorWriterLanguage
2010 Autograph YesYesBengali
2011 Baishe Srabon YesYesBengali
2012 Hemlock Society YesYesBengali
2013 Mishawr Rawhoshyo YesNoBengali
2014 Jaatishwar YesYesBengali
Chotushkone YesYesBengali
2015 Nirbaak YesYesBengali
Rajkahini YesYesBengali
2016 Zulfiqar YesYesBengali
2017 Begum Jaan YesYesHindi
Yeti Obhijaan YesNoBengali
2018 Uma YesYesBengali
Ek Je Chhilo Raja YesYesBengali
2019 Shahjahan Regency YesYesBengali
Vinci Da YesYesBengali
Gumnaami YesYesBengali
2020 Dwitiyo Purush YesYesBengali
2022 Kakababur Protyaborton YesNoBengali
X=Prem YesYesBengali
Sherdil: The Pilibhit Saga YesYesHindi
Shabaash Mithu [21] YesNoHindi
2023 Dawshom Awbotaar YesYesBengali
2024 Oti Uttam YesYesBengali
TekkaYesNoBengali
2025PadatikYesYesBengali
Shotyi Bole Shotyi Kichhu NeiYesYesBengali

Web series

YearFilmDirectorWriterOTTNotes
2012 East India Pharmaceuticals Works Limited(Documentary)YesNoGoutam Ghosh
2020 Feluda Pherot (Chhinnamastar Abhishap)YesNo Addatimes
2021 Ray (Season 1)YesNo Netflix Anthology, Segment- Behrupiya,Forget me not
Rabindranath Ekhane Kokhono Khete Asenni YesNoHoichoiBased on the Bengali book of the same name
2022 Feludar Goyendagiri (Season 1)YesNoHoichoiReleased
2023 Jaanbaaz Hindustan Ke YesNo ZEE5 Released
Durgo RawhoshyoYesNoHoichoiReleased
Feluda Pherot (Jawto Kando Kathmandute)YesNo Addatimes Not Released
2024 Feludar Goyendagiri (Season 2)YesNoHoichoiCurrently on floors
Shekhar HomeYesNoTBAPost-production
Don-BoithokYesYesTBAPre-production

As lyricist and actor

YearFilmLyricistActor
2009 Cross Connection YesNo
Madly Bangalee YesYes
2010 Le Chakka YesNo
Josh YesNo
Gaaner Oparey NoYes
2011 Iti Mrinalini YesYes
Flop-eNoYes
Ghente GhawYesNo
ChaplinNoYes
2012 Dutta Vs Dutta NoYes
Bapi Bari Jaa NoYes
Shabdo NoYes
2013 Maach Mishti & More YesNo
2018 Ahare Mon YesNo
Kabir NoYes
2019 Shantilal O Projapoti Rohoshyo NoYes
2023 Manobjomin NoYes
Dilkhush NoYes

Also as an Actor(Cameo Roles) in all the films he directed

Personal life

Mukherji married Rafiath Rashid Mithila on 6 December 2019. [22] [23]

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<i>Shah Jahan Regency</i> Bengali drama film directed by Srijit Mukherji

Shah Jahan Regency is an Indian Bengali drama film directed by Srijit Mukherji, under the banner of SVF Entertainment Pvt Ltd, starring Abir Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, Anjan Dutt, Mamata Shankar, Anirban Bhattacharya, Swastika Mukherjee, Rudranil Ghosh and Rittika Sen while Rituparna Sengupta and Babul Supriyo appear in Guest appearances. The movie, based on the popular novel Chowringhee by Mani Shankar Mukherjee, was released on 18 January 2019.

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Gumnaami is a 2019 Indian Bengali-language mystery film based on the true events directed by Srijit Mukherji, which deals with the mystery of Netaji's death, based on the Mukherjee Commission hearings and the book Conundrum written by Anuj Dhar and Chandrachur Ghose. It has been produced by Shrikant Mohta, Pranay Ranjan, and Mahendra Soni under the banner of Shree Venkatesh Films. Prosenjit Chatterjee plays the roles of Subhas Chandra Bose and Gumnaami Baba.

<i>Dwitiyo Purush</i> (film) Bengali Psychological thriller film by Srijit Mukherji

Dwitiyo Purush is a 2020 Indian Bengali thriller film, directed by Srijit Mukherjee and produced by Shree Venkatesh Films. The film stars Parambrata Chatterjee, Raima Sen, Anirban Bhattacharya. It is a sequel to the 2011 crime thriller, Baishe Srabon. The film follows the arresting of a new serial killer, Khoka, by the now DCDD Abhijit Pakrashi.

Feludar Goyendagiri is an Indian streaming television series, directed by Srijit Mukherji. It is based on the stories of the Bengali sleuth Feluda, written by Satyajit Ray. Originally known as Feluda Pherot and streaming on Addatimes, the show began streaming on Hoichoi from 17 June 2022.

<i>Dawshom Awbotaar</i> Bengali neo noir film by Srijit Mukherji

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Srijit Mukherji's Cop Universe is an Indian media franchise and shared universe created by Srijit Mukherji, consisting of media focusing on police officers who predominantly solve cases of serial killers. The universe was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.

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  19. "Winners of the Joy Filmfare Awards Bangla 2024".
  20. "'Oti Uttam' to star Mahanayak".
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