Chidananda Das Gupta

Chidananda Das Gupta Biography

Chidananda Das Gupta was a film director and leading film critic from Bengali film industry. He was also a film historian and one of the founders of Calcutta Film Society with Satyajit Ray and Hari Sadhan Dasgupta in 1947. He has written over 2000 articles on cinema in various periodicals. In 2004 Chidananada Das Gupta was honoured with life time achievement award at the Osian Film Festival, 2004. He has also directed 7 movies in his career. Noted film actress and director, Aparna Sen is his daughter and Konkana Sen, his granddaughter. He was married to Supriya Das, niece of Bengali poet Jibanananda Das.

Gupta was born on November 20, 1921 in Shillong, Meghalaya to Shantilata and Manmathanath Dasgupta, a Brahmo missionary and social worker. In 1944 he married, Supriya Das, a daughter of Brahmananda Dashgupta. He had a stint in politics and was active in Quit India movement during his college days. Later he worked as a faculty in St. Columba’s College, Hazaribagh. Later he worked in advertising media with Imperial Tobacco also. In 1947, in association with Satyajit Ray and Hari Sadhan Dasgupta, he founded Calcutta Film Society. In 1957 he, along with Ray and others, started the Indian Film Quarterly. Das Gupta and Satyajit Ray, along with a few more artists set up Federation of Film Societies of India in 1959 which played a major role in the spread of the film society movement in India.

Gupta is also known as a translator of many great Bengali works to English. He has translated the works of Tagore, Jibanananda Das and Manik Bandopadhyay. He had a close association with poet Jibanananda Das during the last phase of his life. As a director his movies are The Stuff Of Steel (1969), The Dance of Shiva (1968), Portrait of a City (1961), Amodini (1994), Zaroorat Ki Purti (1979), Rakhto (1973) and Bilet Pherat (1972).

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Updated: January 24, 2014