Nitin Bose

Nitin Bose Biography

Nitin Bose was one of the earliest director, cinematographer and screenwriter of Indian cinema. He was one of the leading names of both Hindi as well as Bengali cinema. During the decades of 1930’s and 1940’s, he worked for New Theatres, which produced bilingual films in both Hindi and Bengali. He was associated with the industry till early 70’s with the movie Samaantha in the year 1972. Playback singing of Indian cinema started with his movies and it happened with Bengali movie Bhagya chakra released in the year 1935 was regarded as a great reformation of Indian cinema. The singers were K C Dey, Parul Ghosh and Suprabha Sarkar. Nitin received Dadasaheb Phalke Award in the year 1977. He was equally successful as a director and cinematographer. His most noted movie of 1960’s as a director was blockbuster hit Ganga Jamuna with Dilip Kumar in the lead.

Nitin was born as the son of Hemendra Mohan Bose and Mrinalini in 1897. Great director Satyajit Ray is the nephew of Nitin Bose. From early childhood Nitin was interested in photography and his father encouraged his talent. Bose’s entry to direction happened in the year 1921, when he directed a documentary film on Belgian Emperor's visit to India. His film career started as a photographer and his debut feature film was Punarjanma released in the year 1926. His association with New Theatres began with Devdas in the year 1928 where he worked as a cinematographer. He was cinematographer of the only film directed by Rabindranath Tagore: Natir Puja (1932).

After the landmark movie, Bhagya Chakra, he made its Hindi version as well which marked playback singing in Hindi. The movie was titled Dhoop Chhaon. It was Bose who came up with the idea of playback singing and he implemented it in the movie, Bhagya chakra. During the making of Kashinath (1943), personal indifferences occurred between him and B N Sircar and he left New Theatres.

Bose's first movie under Bombay Talkies banner was Naukadubi (1947). His most successful film was Ganga Jamuna. After that he directed a few more movies like Ummeed (1962), Nartakee (1963), Dooj Ka Chand (1964), Hum Kahan Ja Rahe Hain (1966) and Samaanta (1972).

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Updated: October 25, 2013