Basanta Choudhury

Basanta Choudhury Biography

Basanta Choudhury, also known as Basanta Chowdhury was a Bengali film actor who was active in the golden era of Indian cinema. He worked with almost all leading film directors of his period, and this sophisticated actor has appeared in one Bollywood movie of the classic era in a lead role. He played lead role opposite Sadhana for Bimal Roy’s Parekh, best remembered for the film script and music given by Salil Choudhury. Played lead roles in numerous Bengali films, some of his best films include - Andhare Alo, Raja Rammohan, Diba Ratrir Kabya, Deep Jweley Jai, Abhaya O Srikanta, Devi Chowdhurani, Megh Kalo, Sakhabela, and many more.

He was born on 5 May 1928 in Howrah into an affluent Datta Chowdhury family of Andul. He is of Bengali origin. Shiddeshwar Chowdhury and Kamala Devi are his parents, and he had one younger brother. His childhood days were spent in Nagpur, where he completed his schooling and intermediate studies. After studies he shifted to Kolkata and then to Tollygunge. He was a renowned numismatist, who owned a huge collection of Kashmiri and Persian shawls, Ganesha idols, rare coins, paper currency etc. Director Satyajit Ray admired those collections, especially the shawls, and used for many of his masterpiece films.

He marked his film debut with 1952 film, Mahaprasthaner Pathe directed by Kartik Chattopadhay. He was also involved with amateur theater and radio, and has received many awards for acting. B.F.J.A awarded him with best actor award for his memorable performance in Raja Rammohan. Though he acted in many Hindi films Parakh remains his most memorable film. He passed away in year 2000 because of lung cancer.

Published: July 28, 2018

Updated: July 28, 2018