Pradip Mukherjee

Pradip Mukherjee Biography

Pradip Mukherjee is a Bengali actor and theatre personality, best known for playing the male protagonist in Satyajit Ray’s Jana Aranya. The last movie of Calcutta Trilogy, it marked his acting debut too. This talented actor has been associated with parallel cinema and is a favourite of national award winning directors like Satyajit Ray, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Rituparno Ghosh etc. He is not active in mainstream commercial cinema. He acted in critically acclaimed films like Satyajit Ray's Jana Aranya (his debut film), Buddhadeb Dasgupta's Dooratwa (1981) and Rituparno Ghosh's Utsab (2001). Besides acting, he works full-time as a tax consultant. He is associated with Bengali cinema since mid-1970s.

Pradip Mukherjee was born into a middle class family in 1946. Sammohan Mukhopadhyay and Bhakti Mukhopadhyay were his parents. His childhood and teens were spent in Chorbagan area of Shimla in Kolkata. He graduated in law in the year 1973. During college days, he was associated with theatre. He has taken drama classes and has joined drama academies. As a stage actor, he was associated with Tapan Theater in Kolkata during his college days. After completing LLB, he worked as a full-time lawyer and acted in plays during weekends. He was also associated with theatre troupe - Nakshatra Theater.

In 1974 he was spotted by the legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray during one such performance with Nakshatra Theater and gave him the first break to Bengali cinema. He was casted in the lead role in the last movie of Calcutta Trilogy - Jana Aranya. He portrayed the title role of a hopelessness educated boy of the middle-class in this movie. Golap Bou (1978), Dooratwa (1981), Anweshan (1985), Manabpremik Nimai (1991), Hirer Angti (1992), Shakha Proshakha (1992), Dahan (1998), Utsab (2001), Faltu (2006) etc are some of his works later.

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Updated: February 20, 2016