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BENGALI CINEMA

South Asian cinema

There are two Bengali film industries, one in Dhaka, Bangladesh (called Dhallywood), and one in Kolkata, India. The film industry based in Kolkata is sometimes called Tollywood, a portmanteau of the words Tollygunge, the area of South Kolkata where this industry is based, and Hollywood. (However, Tollywood more often refers to the Telugu film industry.)

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Dhallywood

Main article: Cinema of Bangladesh

The Bangladeshi film industry is based in Dhaka. As of 2004, it produced approximately 100 movies a year. The average movie's budget was about 6500000 Bangladeshi taka.[1]

Tollywood

The first Bengali-language movie was the silent feature Biswa Mangal, 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.[2] The contribution of Bengali film industry to Indian film is quite important. It is 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. It enjoys large, even disproportionate, representation in Indian cinema, and has produced an Academy Award winner, Satyajit Ray, an acknowledged great of world film and recipient of India and France's greatest honours, the Bharat Ratna and Legion of Honor. (The only other Indian Oscar winner is Bhanu Athaiya, who won for costume design in 'Gandhi').

Other prominent film makers in the Bengali film industry are Bimal Roy, Ritwik Ghatak, and Mrinal Sen. The Bengali film industry has produced classics like 'Pather Panchali', 'Devi', 'Jalsaghar', 'Devdas', 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' etc.

The most well known Bengali filmstar till date has been Uttam Kumar; he and costar Suchitra Sen were known as The Eternal Pair.

Pioneers in Bengali film music include Raichand Boral, Pankaj Mullick and K. C. Dey, all associated with New Theatres Calcutta [1].

Tollygunge is the home of many noted Bengali actors and directors.

Early History

The early beginnings of the "talking film" industry go back to the early 1930's, when it came to British India at its capital, Calcutta. The movies were originally done in Urdu or Persian as to accommodate a specific elite market. One of the earliest known studios was the East India Film Company.

References

  1. ^ Bangladeshis reject "smutty" Bengali films, AFP/Helen Rowe, accessed 27-VII-2006
  2. ^ BANGLAPEDIA: Film, Feature, accessed 27-VII-2006

See also

External links