Bansi Chandragupta

Bansi Chandragupta Biography

Bansi Chandragupta was one among the greatest art director and production designers of the country. He is a winner of Filmfare award for best art direction thrice. He won it for Seema in 1972, Do Jhoot in 1976 and for Chakra in 1982. He was one among the earliest art directors of Bengali cinema who gave new definitions on how to create art on celluloid and helped Indian cinema to reach international standard. He has been associated with many milestone movies of Satyajit Ray. He was awarded Evening Standard British Film Award posthumously for Best technical/artistic achievement in 1983. He is often described as the first production designer in Indian cinema because of his work style and keeping in note everything needed for the design of scenes for the entire movie.

Bansi was of Kashmiri Pandit lineage, born in 1924 in Sialkot of present day Pakistan. He was drawn towards painting since younger days. After finishing his school, he met Subho Tagore, nephew of renowned poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was a painter and an art collector. It was on Subho Tagore's advice he left Kashmir and reached Kolkata to find better opportunities for his creative talents. Bansi came in touch with the Calcutta Group of Painters and began his art studies. In 1947, Bansi joined Subho Tagore as an assistant in the film Abhijatri directed by Hemen Gupta. When Subho Tagore left the project in the middle, Bansi got opportunity to complete it, thus beginning his new journey as an art director.

Jean Renoir's The River (1951) was one of his early noted works. It was during the shooting of thos movie, he got chance to meet Satyajit Ray who asked him to join Calcutta Film Society. He designed sets of the milestone movie of Indian cinema - Pather Panchali and the rest is history. Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977 was the last movie in their collaboration. 36 Chowringhee Lane, Chakra, Umrao Jaan, Jalsaghar and Charulata are a few more noted works of Bansi.

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Updated: June 30, 2014