BENGALI CINEMA The cinema of West Bengal (Bengali: ) refers to the Tollygunge-based Bengali film industry in Kolkata, West

Bengal, India. The origins of the nickname Tollywood, a portmanteau of the words Tollygunge and Hollywood, dates back to 1932.[1] The industry is known for producing many of Indian cinema's most critically acclaimed Parallel Cinema art films, with several of its filmmakers gaining international acclaim, most notably Satyajit Ray. HISTORY The history of cinema in Bengal dates back to the 1890s, when the first "bioscopes" were shown in theatres in Calcutta. Within a decade, the first seeds of the industry was sown by Hiralal Sen, considered a stalwart of Victorian era cinema[2] when he set up the Royal Bioscope Company, producing scenes from the stage productions of a number of popular shows[2] at the Star Theatre, Minerva Theatre, Classic Theatre. Following a long gap after Sen's works,[3] Dhirendra Nath Ganguly (Known as D.G) established Indo British Film

Co, the first Bengali owned production company, in 1918. However, the first Bengali Feature film, Billwamangal, was produced in 1919, under the banner of Madan Theatre. Bilat Ferat was the IBFC's first production in 1921. The Madan Theatre production of Jamai Shashthi was the first Bengali talkie.[4] A long history has been traversed since then, with stalwarts such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak and others having earned international acclaim and securing their place in the movie history. SILENT ERA: 1919-1930 Hiralal Sen is credited as one of Bengal's, and India's first directors. However, these were all silent films. Hiralal Sen is also credited as one of the pioneers of advertisement films in India. The first Bengali-language movie was the silent feature Billwamangal, produced by the Madan Theatre Company of Calcutta and released on 8 November 1919, only six years after the first full-length Indian feature film, Raja Harish Chandra, was released.[5]

The early beginnings of the "talking film"

industry go back to the early 1930s, when it came to British India, and to Calcutta. The movies were originally made in Urdu or Persian as to accommodate a specific elite market. One of the earliest known studios was the East India Film Company. The first Bengali film to be made as a talkie was Jamai Shashthi, released in 1931. It was at this time that the early heroes of the Bengali film industry like Pramathesh Barua and Debaki Bose were at the peak of their popularity. Barua also directed a number of movies, exploring new dimension in Indian cinema. Debaki Bose directed Chandidas in 1932; this film is noted for its breakthrough in recording sound. Sound recordist Mukul Bose found out solution to the problem of spacing out dialogue and frequency modulation. GOLDEN ERA: 1952-1975 Satyajit Ray During this period, Bengali cinema enjoyed a large, even disproportionate, representation in Indian cinema, and produced film directors like Satyajit Ray, who was an Academy Honorary Award winner, and the recipient of India's and

France's greatest civilian honours, the Bharat Ratna and Legion of Honor respectively, and Mrinal Sen, who is the recipient of the French distinction of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters and the Russian Order of Friendship.

Other prominent film makers in the Bengali film industry at the time included Bimal Roy and Ritwik Ghatak. The Bengali film industry has produced classics such as Nagarik (1952), The Apu Trilogy (19551959), Jalsaghar (1958), Ajantrik (1958), Neel Akasher Neechey (1959), Devdas, Devi (1960), Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960), the Calcutta trilogies (19711976), etc. In particular, The Apu Trilogy is now frequently listed among the greatest films of all time.[6] [7][8][9]

The most well known Bengali actor to date has been Uttam Kumar; he and co-star Suchitra Sen were known as The Eternal Pair in the early 1950s. Soumitra Chatterjee is a notable actor, having acted in several Satyajit Ray films, and considered as a rival to Uttam Kumar

in the 1960s. He is famous for the characterization of Feluda in Sonar Kella (1974) and Joy Baba Felunath (1978), written and directed by Ray. He also played the adult version of Apu in The World of Apu (1959), also directed by Ray. One of the most well known Bengali actresses was Sharmila Tagore, who debuted in Ray's The World of Apu, and became a major actress in Bengali cinema as well as Bollywood. GLOBAL INFLUENCE Ever since Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali (1955) was awarded Best Human Document at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival, Bengali films frequently appeared in international fora and film festivals for the next several decades.[11] This allowed Bengali filmmakers to reach a global audience. The most influential among them was Satyajit Ray, whose films became successful among European, American and Asian audiences.[12] His work subsequently had a worldwide impact, with filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese,[13] James Ivory,[14] Abbas Kiarostami, Elia Kazan, Franois Truffaut,[15] Carlos Saura,[16] Isao Takahata,[17] Wes Anderson[18] and Danny Boyle[19] being

influenced by his cinematic style, and many others such as Akira Kurosawa praising his work.[20] The "youthful coming-of-age dramas that have flooded art houses since the midfifties owe a tremendous debt to the Apu trilogy".[21] Kanchenjungha (1962) introduced a narrative structure that resembles later hyperlink cinema.[22] Ray's 1967 script for a film to be called The Alien, which was eventually cancelled, is widely believed to have been the inspiration for Steven Spielberg's E.T. (1982).[23][24][25] Ira Sachs' Forty Shades of Blue (2005) was a loose remake of Charulata, and in Gregory Nava's My Family (1995), the final scene is duplicated from the final scene of The World of Apu. Similar references to Ray films are found in recent works such as Sacred Evil (2006),[26] the Elements trilogy of Deepa Mehta, and in films of Jean-Luc Godard.[27]

Another prominent Bengali filmmaker is Mrinal Sen, whose films have been well known for their Marxist views. During his career, Mrinal Sen's film have received awards from almost all major film festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Moscow, Karlovy Vary, Montreal,

Chicago, and Cairo. Retrospectives of his films have been shown in almost all major cities of the world.[28]

Another Bengali filmmaker, Ritwik Ghatak, began reaching a global audience long after his death; beginning in the 1990s, a project to restore Ghatak's films was undertaken, and international exhibitions (and subsequent DVD releases) have belatedly generated an increasingly global audience. The cinematographer Subrata Mitra, who made his debut with Ray's The Apu Trilogy, also had an importance influence on cinematography across the world. One of his most important techniques was bounce lighting, to recreate the effect of daylight on sets. He pioneered the technique while filming Aparajito (1956), the second part of The Apu Trilogy.[35] Some of the experimental techniques which Satyajit Ray pioneered include photo-negative flashbacks and X-ray digressions while filming Pratidwandi (1972). ACTORS

Pramathesh Barua Chhabi Biswas Uttam Kumar Soumitra Chatterjee Biswajit Chatterjee Utpal Dutt Rabi Ghosh Victor Banerjee Shamit Bhanja Ranjit Mallik Dipankar Dey Mithun Chakraborty Prasenjit Chatterjee Sabyasachi Chakraborty Tapas Pal Anjan Dutta Jeet Dev Jishu Sengupta Sanjoy Sinharoy[47] ACTRESSES Kanan Devi Chhaya Devi Suchitra Sen Sharmila Tagore Madhabi Mukherjee Supriya Devi Sandhya Roy Sabitri Chatterjee Aparna Sen Jaya Bhaduri Anjana Bhowmik Mithu Mukherjee Mousumi Chatterjee Mahua Roychowdhury Moonmoon Sen Debashree Roy Shatabdi Roy Rituparna Sengupta Rachana Banerjee Koyel Mullick Konkona Sen Sharma Raima Sen Ananya Chatterjee Swastika Mukherjee Srabanti Biswas Payal Sarkar Subhashree Ganguly Nusrat Jahan PRODUCERS Top producers of Bengali films are RP Techvision, Rosevalley Films, Venkatesh Films and Surinder Films

DIRECTORS Debaki Bose Nitin Bose Satyajit Ray Bimal Roy Ritwik Ghatak Mrinal Sen Tapan Sinha Shakti Samanta Tarun Majumdar Hrishikesh Mukherjee Buddhadev Dasgupta Ajay Kar Aparna Sen Hiralal Sen Basu Bhattacharya Gautam Ghose Rituparno Ghosh Raj Chakraborty Ravi Kinagi Subrata Sen Anjan Dutta Arin Paul Swapan Saha Haranath Chakraborty Anjan Chowdhury Sandip Ray Sujit Guha Sujit Mondal Srijit Mukherji