Cinema of West Bengal
Bengali cinema in Kolkata, India or the Bengali Film Industry also known as Tollywood ( Bengali:টলিউড ) refers to the Kolkata (Calcutta) based Bengali film industry in India. The origins of that name, Tollywood a portmanteau of the words Tollygunge and Hollywood are disputed.
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The film industry based in Kolkata,West Bengal is referred as Tollywood, a portmanteau of the words Tollygunge, a neighbourhood of Calcutta where most of the Bengali film studios are located, and Hollywood.
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 [1] when he set up the Royal Bioscope Company, producing scenes from the stage productions of a number of popular shows[1] at the Star Theatre, Minerva Theatre , Classic Theatre. Following a long gap after Sen's works, [2] 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.[3] 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.
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 November 8, 1919, only six years after the first full-length Indian feature film, Raja Harish Chandra, was released.[4]
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 The movies were originally made in Urdu or Persian as to accommodate a specific elite market.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.
The contribution of Bengali film industry to Indian film is quite significant.First bengali talkies Jamai Shashthi (as short film) was released 25 April 1931 at Crown Cinema Hall in Calcutta and First bengali talkies as full length fuature film Dena Paona was released 30 December 1931 at Chitra Cinema Hall in Calcutta Based in Tollygunge, an area of South Kolkata, West Bengal and is more elite and artistically-inclined than the usual musical cinema fare in India. In the past, it 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 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 are Bimal Roy, the late Ritwik Ghatak, and Aparna Sen. The Bengali film industry has produced classics like 'Pather Panchali', 'Devi', 'Jalsaghar', 'Devdas', 'Neel Akasher Neechey', 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' etc.
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 and Joy Baba Felunath, written and directed by Ray.
The pioneers in Bengali film music include Raichand Boral, Pankaj Mullick and K. C. Dey, all associated with New Theatres Calcutta [5]. Other famous playback singers in Bengali film music were Hemanta Mukherjee,Manna Dey, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay and Kishore Kumar.
In the 1980s, however, the Bengal film industry went through a period of turmoil, with a shift from its traditional artistic and emotional inclinations to an approach more imitating the increasingly more popular Hindi films, along with a decline in the audience and critical appreciation, with notable exceptions of the works of directors like Gautam Ghose. However, even at this time, a number of actors and actresses enjoyed popularity, including Tapas Pal, Prosenjit, Chiranjit, Rituparna Sengupta and others. However, toward the end of the 90s, with the a number of directors coming increasingly into prominence, including Rituparno Ghosh, Gautam Ghose, Aparna Sen, Sandip Ray among others, a number of popular and critically acclaimed movies have come out of the Bengali film industry in recent years. These include, Unishe April, Titli, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, Bombaiyer Bombete, etc and signal a resurgence of the Bengali film industry.
The market for Bengali films has expanded to a 340-million-strong Bengali audience in Bangladesh, West Bengal, Tripura and Assam. The industry could truly flourish if films from this state have a proper distribution network. While around 50 films are produced in West Bengal every year, only 30 make it to the theatres.[6]
70 Bengali movies are released every year and are produced with a budget of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore per movie in 2008.Indias big house Reliance Big Entertainment and Home Entertainment anounced The most expensive Bengali movie will be made with a budget of Rs 3 crore, while other regional movies like the ones in Tamil will have a budget of Rs 40 crore as on 2008[7]. For reference: a crore rupee = 10 million rupees or (roughly 160 thousand euros), a lakh = 100,000 rupees.
The Bengali film industry, which had been a beacon for the country's film industry until the 1980s, is in a turnaround mode. At a time when Bollywood continues its roller-coaster ride, there are cheers in the Bengali film industry with several commercial successes.The dark period of the 1990s when Bengali tinsel town was on a steep decline seems like a nightmare that's best forgotten. And, with the money pouring in, producers from other States are now knocking on the doors of Bengali directors.Industry sources say that the best proof of the comeback is seen in the increasing number of cinema houses showing Bengali films. Even a few years ago, of the 800 movie theatres in the State, no more than 350 were showing just Bengali films. The remaining had spread their risk showing a mix of either Hindi and English or Hindi and Bengali films.2008, nearly 700 theatres are showing Bengali films.
The movie, produced by Ramoji Films at a cost of Rs 65 lakh, recovered its costs within three weeks and is still raking in the moolah for its distributors, producers and theatre owners since last December.The movie has brought back the concept of family entertainment with Sandip Ray's gambit of contemporising the plot paying him rich dividend. Admitting that he did not expect this success, he told Life that he was now lining up another such film for release next year.Earlier, a film by award-winning director Buddhadeb Dasgupta's Mondo Meyer Upakhyan (The Tale of a Fallen Girl) produced by Arjoe Entertainments netted nearly Rs 7 crore through sale of overseas rights against a cost of Rs 60 lakh.Haranath Chakraborty His film Sathee (Companion) created a record by recouping over five times its production cost, although the film Chokher Bali, with big names like Aishwariya Rai, Rituparno Ghosh and Tagore, failed to yield expected results. The movie, billed at Rs 1.65 crore (the highest among Bengali films).[8]
Loose and unorganised production activities, dominated and dictated by providers of capital led to proliferation of sub-standard films, which were most often commercial failures.The recent successes have come through some concerted effort by parallel cinema which has tapped the domestic market, even while scouting the overseas ones, hitting the festival circuit somewhere in between. As such, celluloid creations of award-winning directors like Gautam Ghosh, Rituparno Ghosh and Aparna Sen started bringing money for their producers. However, at around the same time, movies in the commercial circuit (directors like to call them mainstream cinema) also started doing well, supported strongly by the response from the semi-urban areas.The big Bollywood banners such as Mukta Arts and Rajshri films are now showing interest in funding Bengali films.
Hollywood houses like Columbia Tristar have made their debut in distributing Bengali movies . According to industry experts, several issues need to be addressed to build on this resurgence and consolidate it.These include inadequate infrastructure, which often compels moviemakers to go outside the State for facilities pushing up costs, poor marketing and distribution and increasing competition from Bangladeshi films.the entertainment company in the RPG group, has decided to restrict its budget in film production to about Rs 5 crore and This would be a Rs 4-5-crore budget film [9][10]
Well-known film personalities of Bengali film industry include,
Pramathesh Barua · Chhabi Biswas · Victor Bannerjee · Soumitra Chatterjee · Rabi Ghosh · Uttam Kumar · Prasenjit ·
Jaya Bhaduri · Sabitri Chatterjee · Madhabi Mukherjee · Konkona Sen Sharma · Suchitra Sen · Sharmila Tagore ·
Debaki Bose · Nitin Bose · Buddhadev Dasgupta · Ritwik Ghatak · Gautam Ghose · Rituparno Ghosh · Tarun Majumdar · Hrishikesh Mukherjee · Satyajit Ray · Bimal Roy · Aparna Sen · Hiralal Sen · Mrinal Sen · Tapan Sinha · Agrodoot · · Basu Bhattacharya · Raj Chakravorty · Ravi Kinagi · Bimal Roy · Shakti Samanta · Subrata sen · Anjan Dutta · Sekhar Das · Anjun Das · Robin Das
Nachiketa Ghosh · Sudhin Dasgupta · Jeet Ganguly ·
- Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards-The oldest Association of Film critics in India, founded in 1937, by the inspiration and determination of the handful of pioneers amongst the then thin section of scribes that were drawn to film journalism with a lofty mission to serve the developing film journalism and film industry.
- Anandalok Awards-Ceremony is one of the most prominent film events given for Bengali Cinema in India
- Kalakar Awards-Ceremony is recognized as one of the topmost awards ceremonies of eastern region of India.
- Tellysamman Awards-Sangbad Pratidin, a Kolkata based Bengali daily organized this Award Ceremony.
The best archive of Bengali film is Bengali film directory (in English Language), Published in 1999, Nandan, West Bengal Film Centre (Calcutta). This directory book was edited by Ansu Sur and was compiled by Abhijit Goswami. It covers almost all released Bengali feature films from 1917 to 1998 with short descriptions including detailed cast and crew, director name, released date and released theater name.[11]
Today, there are two Bengali language film industries, one in Tollygunge, in Kolkata, India,( called Tollywood a portmanteau of the words Tollygunge and Hollywood, also known as Tollywood) [12][13] is one of many centres for Indian regional filmmaking and the other one in Dhaka, Bangladesh (called Dollywood, a portmanteau of the words Dhaka and Hollywood, also known as Dhallywood)is the mainstream national film industry of Bangladesh.
- List of Bengali films
- Bollywood
- Jollywood
- Kollywood
- Lollywood
- Hollywood
- Kariwood
- Tollywood
- Ollywood
- Cinema of India
- ^ a b Who's Who of Victorian Cinema. Hiralal Sen
- ^ Pioneers of Bangladeshi Cinema
- ^ IMDB page on Jamai Shashthi
- ^ BANGLAPEDIA: Film, Feature, accessed 27-VII-2006
- ^ New Theatres Calcutta
- ^ http://www.screenindia.com/news/Bengali-cinema-in-independent-India/347909/
- ^ http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=309151
- ^ http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/life/2004/04/05/stories/2004040500100200.htm
- ^ http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2003/11/04/stories/2003110401500200.htm
- ^ http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=333086
- ^ http://openlibrary.org/b/OL171681M
- ^ http://www.indfy.com/kolkata/special-attractions/tollywood-trip.html
- ^ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1251462050.cms
- Aamar Ami(Bengali)- Uttam Kumar Chattopadhyay—Dey's Publishing, Calcutta,1980
- hamar Jug Aamar Gaan(Bengali)—Pankaj Kumar Mullik—Firma KLM Pvt Ltd., Calcutta 1980
- Banala Bhashay Chalachchdra Charcha(Bengali)- Ehfi Tathya,aanji Opanhr r Bha charyr CharK Goswami, Tapas Pal—North Calcutta Film Society, Calcutta, 1995
- Bangla Chalachchdra Shilper llihas (1897-1947)(Bengali)—Kalish Mukhapadhyay—Poop I lancha Prahashi
- Bangla Chalachchdrer llihas (1st Part)(Bengali)-Pranab Kumar Biswas Samakal Prakashani, Calcul
- Bangla Sahhya O Bangla Chalachchitra (1st Part)(Bengali)-Jishh Kumar Mukhapadhyay—Ananda~ha
- Banglar Chalachchitrakar—Nisht Kumar Mukhopadhyay—Slanda Pu ishrs, Calcr
- Banglar Nat-Nati—Sudhir Basu—Calcutta, 1933
- Cniirabani Chitr barshihi ^119520ed. 60ur Chattopadhyay & Sunil Gar~adhya~Ch^ar$b
- Cinema anr I—Ri ih Kumar Ghatah— h
- Rhrw Memorial Trust, Calcu^na, 1987
- Filrnography of Sixty En inentlndian Movie Makers—Ft I Ra M
- Nirbah Juger Chhayaloher Katha—Premanhur At rth —~ kudta
- Sonar Daag—60uranga Prasad Ghosh~oc^frnaya Prakashani, Calculla, 1982
- Bengali Film Directory– edited by Ansu Sur, Nandan, Calcutta, 1999
- 70 years of Indian Cinema – edited by T.N. Ramachandran, Cinemaa India International, Bombay, 1985
- A Pictorial History of Indian Cinema – Firoj Rangogoonwalla, The Hamlyn Publishing Group, Lonodn, 1979
- Encycopedia of Indian Cinema – Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Paul Willemen, Oxfor University Press, New Delhi, 1994
- TollyNewZ.com A Portal on Bengali Cinema
- Bengali cinema at www.calcuttaweb.com
- History
- www.banglacinema.net A Portal on Bengali Cinema
- www.bengalifilm.com
- Indian Cinema Database
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