List of people from Kolkata
Encyclopedia
Kolkata
has been regarded as the cultural capital of India
. This is a list of notable people from Kolkata, that is, people born in or associated with the city.
winners have been associated with Kolkata:
and Gujarati
business tycoons hail from the city. Some of the notables among them are:
, sometimes called "Asia's Nobel Prize", is given "to perpetuate his example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society." Kolkata winners include:
, founded by Abanindranath Tagore
, nephew of Rabindranath Tagore
. Other notable artists:
, who won the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement
in 1992, lived in Kolkata and is considered among the four greatest directors of film history. Other notable filmmakers from Kolkata include:
Notable actors include:
Notable theatre groups:
• Theatrecian
Hindustani Classical Singers/Maestros:
Other singers
Choir groups:
Bengali bands:
Contemporary Bollywood musicians:
Among the many different dance forms prevalent in Kolkata, notable are:
Summer Olympic
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
has been regarded as the cultural capital of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. This is a list of notable people from Kolkata, that is, people born in or associated with the city.
Poets (In order of surname)
- Sukanta BhattacharyaSukanta BhattacharyaSukanta Bhattacharya was a Bengali poet and playwright. Along with Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam, he was one of the key figures of modern Bengali poetry, despite the fact that most of his works had been in publication posthumously...
- Buddhadev Bose
- Amiya ChakravartyAmiya ChakravartyAmiya Chandra Chakravarty was a literary critic, academic, and Bengali Poet. He was a close associate of Rabindrath Tagore, and edited several books of his poetry. He was also an associate of Gandhi, and an expert on the American catholic writer and monk, Thomas Merton. Dr. Chakravarty was...
- Shakti ChattopadhyayShakti ChattopadhyayShakti Chattopadhay was a Bengali poet and writer, widely regarded as one of the greatest poet of 20th century Bengali literature. -External links:...
- Dinesh DasDinesh DasDinesh Das was a Bengali poet. He created a stir with his poem Kaste . He immortalized Kolkata's Clive Street in one of his poems :Here, in a hundred snake-like veins,Streams of people come and go....
- Jibanananda DasJibanananda DasJibanananda Das was a noted Bengali poet. He is considered one of the precursors who introduced modernist poetry to Bengali Literature, at a period when it was influenced by Rabindranath Tagore's Romantic poetry....
- Bishnu DeyBishnu DeyBishnu Dey was a prominent Bengali poet, prose writer, translator, academic and art critique in the era of modernism, post-modernism...
- Satyendranath DuttaSatyendranath DuttaSatyendranath Dutta , a Bengali poet, is considered the wizard of rhymes...
- Sudhindranath DuttaSudhindranath DuttaSudhindranath Dutta was a Bengali Indian post-modern poet, essayist, journalist and critic. Sudhindranath is one of the most notable poets after the Tagore-era in Bangla literature.-Education:...
- Sunil GangopadhyaySunil GangopadhyaySunil Gangopadhyay , is a celebrated Indian poet and novelist.-Early life:...
- Joy GoswamiJoy GoswamiJoy Goswami is an Indian poet. Goswami writes in Bangla and is widely considered as one of the most important Bengali poets of his generation.-Biography:...
- Kaji Nazrul Islam
- Rupam IslamRupam IslamRupam Islam is a playback singer, song writer, composer and the lead singer of the band Fossils. He is a recipient of National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer. He won the award in 2010, for his work in the film Mahanagar @ Kolkata...
- Mohitolal MajumdarMohitolal MajumdarMohitlal Majumdar , a renowned Bengali author, was born at Balagarh village in Hoogly district, India.-Life:He was a professor of the University of Dhaka of Bengal, now in Bangladesh....
- Arun MitraArun MitraArun Mitra was a Bengali poet.He was born in Jessore, now in Bangladesh, Arun moved to Kolkata when he was a young boy and did most of his schooling there. In college he was very fascinated by the life sciences, although he was officially a student of English...
- Premendra MitraPremendra MitraPremendra Mitra was a renowned Bengali poet, novelist, short story writer and film director. He was also an author of Bangla science fiction and thrillers.-Life:...
- Subhas Mukhopadhyay
- Purnendu PatriPurnendu PatriPurnendu Patri was an Indian poet of Bengali origin. He was born in Howrah in West Bengal. He was a noted short-story writer and a critic. One of his story collection is known as 'Staliner Raaa' and a book on Rabindranath is titled 'Amar Rabindranath'. Patri was also known as an illustrator and...
- Annada Shankar RayAnnada Shankar RayAnnada Shankar Ray was a Bengali poet and essayist.Annada Shankar Ray was born in 1904 at Dhenkanal, Orissa. He graduated in English from Ravenshaw College. His father had shifted base from their ancestral village of Rameswarpur near Dhamnagar in Bhadrak of Orissa, following a family feud...
- Dwijendralal RayDwijendralal RayDwijendralal Ray , also known as D. L. Ray , was a Bengali poet, playwright, and musician. He was known for his Hindu mythological and Nationalist historical plays and songs known as Dwijendrageeti or the Songs of Dwijendralal, which number over 500, create a separate sub-genre of Bengali Music...
- Tarapada Ray
- Sukumar RaySukumar RaySukumar Ray , , was a Bengali humorous poet, story writer and playwright who mainly wrote for children. As perhaps the most famous Indian practitioner of literary nonsense, he is often compared to Lewis Carroll...
- Samar SenSamar SenSamar Sen was a Bengali poet and journalist. He hailed from an illustrious family, many of whose scions have enriched the intellectual world of Bengal. His grandfather, Dinesh Chandra Sen, was a well-known writer and a doyen of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad...
- Rabindranath TagoreRabindranath TagoreRabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
, Nobel Laureate
Novelists (In order of surname)
- Syed Mujtaba AliSyed Mujtaba AliSyed Mujtaba Ali was a renowned Bengali author, academician, scholar and linguist. He was born in present Karimganj District Assam of undivided Sylhet in Bengal.-Education and early career:...
- Bibhutibhushan BandyopadhyayBibhutibhushan BandopadhyayBibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay was one of the most famous Bengali novelist and writer of modern Bengali literature...
- Nabarun BhattacharyaNabarun BhattacharyaNabarun Bhattacharya is an Indian Bengali writer deeply committed to a revolutionary and radical aesthetics. He was born at Baharampur , West Bengal...
- Sourin Bhattacharjee
- Sharadindu BandyopadhyaySharadindu BandyopadhyaySharadindu Bandyopadhyay was a well known literary figure of Bengal. He was also actively involved with Bengali cinema as well as Bollywood. His most famous creation is the fictional detective Byomkesh Bakshi.He wrote different forms of prose: novels, short stories, plays and screenplays...
- Tarashankar BandopadhyayTarashankar BandopadhyayTarasankar Bandyopadhyay was one of the leading Bengali novelists. He wrote 65 novels, 53 story-books, 12 plays, 4 essay-books, 4 autobiographies and 2 travel stories...
- Bani BasuBani BasuBani Basu is a Bengali Indian author, essayist, critic and poet. She was educated at the well-known Scottish Church College and at the University of Calcutta....
- Samaresh BasuSamaresh BasuSamaresh Basu was an Indian Bengali writer based in Kolkata, India. He was born on December 11, 1924 and spent his early childhood in Dhaka, Bikrampur in what is today Bangladesh...
- Rajsekhar Basu
- Sibram Chakraborty
- Suchitra BhattacharyaSuchitra BhattacharyaSuchitra Bhattacharya is an Indian novelist.-Early life and education:Suchitra Bhattacharya was interested in writing from her childhood....
- Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay
- Upamanyu ChatterjeeUpamanyu ChatterjeeUpamanyu Chatterjee is an Indian Bengali author and administrator, notable for his work set in the milieu of the Indian Administrative Service, especially his novel English, August. He was born in Patna, Bihar and was educated at St. Xavier's School and St. Stephen's College, in Delhi...
- Sanjeev ChattopadhyaySanjeev ChattopadhyaySanjeev Chattopadhyay is a fiction writer. His style is characterized by use of short satirical sentences mixed with very lively language.-Childhood and education:...
- Sharatchandra Chattopadhyay
- Amit ChaudhuriAmit ChaudhuriAmit Chaudhuri is an internationally recognised Indian English author and academic. He is currently Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of East Anglia.-Life:...
- Anita DesaiAnita DesaiAnita Mazumdar Desai is an Indian novelist and Emeritus John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
- Ashapoorna DeviAshapoorna DeviAshapoorna Devi , also Ashapurna Debi or Asha Purna Devi, is a prominent Bengali novelist and poet. She was born in 8 January 1909. She has been widely honoured with a number of prizes and awards...
- Mahasweta DeviMahasweta DeviMahasweta Devi is an Indian social activist and writer.- Biography :Mahasweta Devi was born in 1926 in Dhaka, to literary parents in a Hindu Brahmin family. Her father Manish Ghatak was a well known poet and novelist of the Kallol era, who used the pseudonym Jubanashwa...
- Sukanta Gangopadhyay
- Sunil GangopadhyaySunil GangopadhyaySunil Gangopadhyay , is a celebrated Indian poet and novelist.-Early life:...
- Amitav GhoshAmitav GhoshAmitav Ghosh , is a Bengali Indian author best known for his work in the English language.-Life:Ghosh was born in Calcutta on July 11, 1956, to Lieutenant Colonel Shailendra Chandra Ghosh, a retired officer of the pre-independence Indian Army, and was educated at The Doon School; St...
- Pracheta Gupta
- Bimal KarBimal KarBimal Kar was an eminent Bengali writer and novelist.He received 1975 Sahitya Akademi Award in Bengali, by Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, for his novel Asamay.-Personal life and education:...
- Leela MajumdarLeela MajumdarLeela Majumdar , was a Bengali writer.-Early life:Born to Surama Devi and Pramada Ranjan Ray , Leela spent her childhood days at Shillong, where she studied at the Loreto Convent. Surama Devi had been adopted by Upendra Kishor Ray Choudhuri...
- Samaresh MajumdarSamaresh MajumdarSamaresh Majumdar is a well known contemporary Bengali writer. He spent his childhood years in the tea gardens of Duars, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, India. He was a student of the Jalpaiguri Zilla School, Jalpaiguri. He completed his bachelors in Bengali from Scottish Church College, Kolkata. His...
- Bimal MitraBimal MitraBimal Mitra was a prominent Bengali writer who wrote several novels.Bimal Mitra was equally adept in writing in Bengali as well as in Hindi, and has more than one hundred novels and short stories to his credit...
- Premendra MitraPremendra MitraPremendra Mitra was a renowned Bengali poet, novelist, short story writer and film director. He was also an author of Bangla science fiction and thrillers.-Life:...
- Suketu MehtaSuketu MehtaSuketu Mehta is a writer based in New York City. He was born in Kolkata, India, and raised in Bombay where he lived until his family moved to the New York area in 1977. He has attended New York University and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.His autobiographical account of his experiences...
- Bharati MukherjeeBharati MukherjeeBharati Mukherjee is an award-winning Indian-born American writer. She is currently a professor in the department of English at the University of California, Berkeley.-Background:...
- Bibhutibhushan MukhopadhyayBibhutibhushan MukhopadhyayBibhutibhushan Mukhopadhyay was a renowned Bengali author. He was born in Darbhanga, Bihar, India.-Life:Bibhutibhushan Mukhopadhyay was born on 24 October 1894 in a village of Mithila of Bihar....
- Mani Shankar Mukhopadhyay (Shankar)Mani Shankar MukherjeeShankar, real name Mani Shankar Mukherjee, and generally known in English-language literature as Sankar is a very popular writer in the Bengali language...
- Shirshendu MukhopadhyayShirshendu MukhopadhyayShirshendu Mukhopadhyay is a Bengali author who writes Bengali books. He has written stories for both adults and children.-Life:Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay was born in Bikrampur , now in Bangladesh. He spent his childhood in Bihar and many places in Bengal and Assam accompanying his father, who worked...
- Moti NandiMoti NandiMoti Nandi [10 July 1931 - 3 January 2010] was a Bengali writer based in Kolkata, India. He was born in Kolkata in 1931. He was an alumnus of the University of Calcutta. He died in 2010.-Career:...
- Dibyendu PalitDibyendu PalitDibyendu Palit is a Bengali writer of poems, novels, and short stories. His first story Chandapatan was published in 1955 in the Sunday edition of Anandabazar Patrika....
- Satyajit RaySatyajit RaySatyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
- Vikram SethVikram SethVikram Seth is an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist.-Early life:Vikram Seth was born on 20 June 1952 to Leila and Prem Seth in Calcutta...
- Syed Mustafa SirajSyed Mustafa SirajSyed Mustafa Siraj সৈয়দ মুস্তাফা সিরাজ is an eminent Bengali writer. In 1994, he received the Sahitya Akademi award for his novel Aleek Manush অলীক মানুষ...
- Rabindranath TagoreRabindranath TagoreRabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
- William Makepeace ThackerayWilliam Makepeace ThackerayWilliam Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
- Benjamin WalkerBenjamin WalkerBenjamin Walker is the truncated pen name of George Benjamin Walker, who also writes under the pseudonym Jivan Bhakar...
Critics, philosophers (In order of surname)
- Syed Mujtaba AliSyed Mujtaba AliSyed Mujtaba Ali was a renowned Bengali author, academician, scholar and linguist. He was born in present Karimganj District Assam of undivided Sylhet in Bengal.-Education and early career:...
- S. Wajid AliS. Wajid AliS. Wajed Ali was a Bengali writer and nationalist.- Early life :Wajid Ali was born on 4 September 1890 in the village of Bara Tajpur of Hooghly district. S. Wajed Ali's maternal grandmother hailed from the Nawabpur village in Chanditola of Hooghly district...
- Bankim Chandra ChattopadhyayBankim Chandra ChattopadhyayBankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was a famous Bengali writer, poet and journalist. He was the composer of India’s national song Vande Mataram, originally a Bengali and Sanskrit stotra personifying India as a mother goddess and inspiring the activists during the Indian Freedom Movement...
- Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay
- Nirad C. ChaudhuriNirad C. ChaudhuriItalic textNirad C. Chaudhuri was a Bengali−English writer and cultural commentator...
- Pramath Chowdhury
- Kazi Nazrul IslamKazi Nazrul IslamKazi Nazrul Islam , sobriquet Bidrohi Kobi, was a Bengali poet, musician and revolutionary who pioneered poetic works espousing intense spiritual rebellion against fascism and oppression. His poetry and nationalist activism earned him the popular title of Bidrohi Kobi...
- Shishir Kumar Maitra
- Dinabandhu MitraDinabandhu MitraDinabandhu Mitra the Bengali dramatist, was born in 1830 at village Chouberia in Gopalnagar P.S., 24 Parganas and was the son of Kalachand Mitra. His given name was Gandharva Narayan, but he changed it to Dinabandhu Mitra.-Early life:Dinabandhu Mitra's education started at a village pathshala...
- Dhan Gopal MukerjiDhan Gopal MukerjiDhan Gopal Mukerji was the first successful Indian man of letters in the United States and winner of Newbery Medal 1928...
- A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
- Rajendra PrasadRajendra PrasadDr. Rajendra Prasad was an Indian politician and educator. He was one of the architects of the Indian Republic, having drafted its first constitution and serving as the first president of independent India...
, - Gayatri Chakravorty SpivakGayatri Chakravorty SpivakGayatri Chakravorty Spivak is an Indian literary critic, theorist and a University Professor at Columbia University. She is best known for the essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?", considered a founding text of postcolonialism, and for her translation of Jacques Derrida's Of Grammatology. She...
- Michael Madhusudan DuttMichael Madhusudan DuttMichael Madhusudan Dutt or Michael Madhusudan Dutta was a popular 19th century Bengali poet and dramatist. He was born in Sagardari , on the bank of Kopotaksho [কপোতাক্ষ] River, a village in Keshobpur Upozila, Jessore District, East Bengal . His father was Rajnarayan Dutt, an eminent lawyer, and...
- Sharadindu BandyopadhyaySharadindu BandyopadhyaySharadindu Bandyopadhyay was a well known literary figure of Bengal. He was also actively involved with Bengali cinema as well as Bollywood. His most famous creation is the fictional detective Byomkesh Bakshi.He wrote different forms of prose: novels, short stories, plays and screenplays...
- Swami VivekanandaSwami VivekanandaSwami Vivekananda , born Narendranath Dutta , was the chief disciple of the 19th century mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission...
Linguists
- James AtkinsonJames Atkinson (Persian scholar)James Atkinson was a surgeon, artist and Persian scholar - "a Renaissance man among Anglo-Indians" - Early life :Atkinson was born in Darlington, County Durham, England, the son of a woolcomber...
- Suniti Kumar ChattopadhyaySuniti Kumar ChatterjiSuniti Kumar Chatterji was an Indian linguist, educationist and litterateur. He was born on 26 November 1890 at Shibpur in Howrah...
- Shankar Lal Choudhuri
Reformers
- Raja Ram Mohun Roy
- Mother TeresaMother TeresaMother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
- Keshab Chandra Sen
- Henry Louis Vivian Derozio
- David HareDavid Hare (philanthropist)David Hare was a Scottish watchmaker and philanthropist in Bengal. He founded many important and prestigious educational institutions in Kolkata, such as the Hindu School, and Hare School and helped in founding Presidency College.-Early life:...
- Alexander Duff
- Ishwar Chandra VidyasagarIshwar Chandra VidyasagarIshwar Chandra Vidyasagar CIE , born Ishwar Chandra Bandopadhyaya , was an Indian Bengali polymath and a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance....
- William Carey
- Moti Lal Seal
Scientists (In order of surname)
- Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose
- Satyendra Nath BoseSatyendra Nath BoseSatyendra Nath Bose FRS was an Indian mathematician and physicist noted for his collaboration with Albert Einstein in developing a theory regarding the gaslike qualities of electromagnetic radiation. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation...
- J.B.S. Haldane
- Kariamanickam Srinivasa KrishnanKariamanickam Srinivasa KrishnanPadma Bhushan Sir Kariamanickam Srinivasa Krishnan, FRS, was an Indian physicist. He was a co-discover of Raman scattering, for which his mentor C. V. Raman was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics.-Early life:...
- Prasanta Chandra MahalanobisPrasanta Chandra MahalanobisPrasanta Chandra Mahalanobis FRS was an Indian scientist and applied statistician. He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure. He made pioneering studies in anthropometry in India...
- Subhash MukhopadhyaySubhash Mukhopadhyay (physician)Subhash Mukhopadhyay was a physician from Kolkata, India.-Early life:He was born on January 16, 1931 in Hazaribag, Bihar , India. He studied and graduated with an honours degree in physiology from the Calcutta National Medical College, which was then affiliated with the prestigious University...
- Sisir Kumar MitraSisir Kumar MitraSisir Kumar Mitra [or Shishirkumar Mitra] was an Indian physicist.He was born and raised in Calcutta. His parents were the doctor Saratkumari and the school teacher Jaykrishna. At the age of nine he witnessed a hot air balloon and became intrigued in the phenomenon, so he began studying science...
- Amal Kumar RaychaudhuriAmal Kumar RaychaudhuriAmal Kumar Raychaudhuri was a leading physicist well known for his contributions to relativistic cosmology, particularly Raychaudhuri's equation, which is a key ingredient in proving the Penrose-Hawking singularity theorems of general relativity...
- C. V. Raman
- Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy
- Meghnad SahaMeghnad SahaMeghnad Saha FRS was an Indian astrophysicist best known for his development of the Saha equation, used to describe chemical and physical conditions in stars.-Early life:...
Nobel laureates
Five Nobel PrizeNobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winners have been associated with Kolkata:
- Sir Ronald Ross (1902, Medicine)
- Rabindranath TagoreRabindranath TagoreRabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
(1913, Literature; first Asian to win the Nobel Prize) - C V Raman (1930, Physics)
- Mother TeresaMother TeresaMother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
(1979, Peace) - Amartya SenAmartya SenAmartya Sen, CH is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members...
(1998, Economics)
Business tycoons
Many MarwariMarwaris
Marwari or Marwadi or Rajasthani people are Indian ethnic group, that inhabit the Rajasthan region of India. Their language Rajasthani is a part of the western group of Indo-Aryan languages....
and Gujarati
Gujarati people
Gujarati people , or Gujaratis are an ethnic group that is traditionally Gujarati-speaking and can trace their ancestry to the state of Gujarat in western India...
business tycoons hail from the city. Some of the notables among them are:
- Aditya Vikram BirlaAditya Vikram BirlaAditya Vikram Birla , was an Indian industrialist. Born into one of the largest business families of India, Birla oversaw the diversification of his group into textiles, petrochemicals and telecommunications. He was one of the first Indian industrialists to expand abroad, setting up plants in...
- Rama Prasad Goenka (RPG GroupRPG GroupThe RPG Group one of India's largest industrial conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, India. It was founded by RP Goenka in 1979, and initially encompassed Phillips Carbon Black, Asian Cables, Agarpara Jute and Murphy India...
) - Lakshmi MittalLakshmi MittalLakshmi Narayan Mittal is an Indian steel magnate. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaking company....
- Purnendu ChatterjeePurnendu ChatterjeePurnendu Chatterjee is a Bengali industrialist and entrepreneur. He is the Founder and Chairman of The Chatterjee Group and also serves as Executive Director to Indian School of Business in Hyderabad.- Education :...
- Vijay MallyaVijay MallyaVijay Mallya is an Indian liquor and airline baron. The son of industrialist Vittal Mallya, he is the chairman of the United Breweries Group and Kingfisher Airlines. His United Spirits is world's second largest liquor maker, by volume...
- Harsh Neotia
Freedom fighters (In order of surname)
- Sri AurobindoSri AurobindoSri Aurobindo , born Aurobindo Ghosh or Ghose , was an Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru, and poet. He joined the Indian movement for freedom from British rule and for a duration became one of its most important leaders, before developing his own vision of human progress...
- Benoy BasuBenoy BasuBenoy Krishna Basu or Benoy Basu or Benoy Bose was an Bengali Indian revolutionary.-Early life:Basu was born on 11 September 1908, in the village Rohitbhog in the Munshiganj District, now in Bangladesh...
- Rash Behari BoseRash Behari BoseRashbehari Bose was a revolutionary leader against the British Raj in India and was one of the key organisers of the Ghadar conspiracy and later, the Indian National Army.-Early life:...
- Subhas Chandra Bose
- Jogesh Chandra Chattopadhyay
- Chittaranjan DasChittaranjan DasChittaranjan Das was an eminent Bengali lawyer and a major figure in the Indian independence movement.-Personal life:...
- Jatindra Nath DasJatindra Nath DasJatindra Nath Das , also known as Jatin Das, was an Indian freedom fighter and revolutionary. The death of Jatin Das in Lahore jail after 63 days of hunger strike shocked the whole of India. Jatin Das is the only person to fast to death before independence, Potti Sreeramulu fasted to death...
- Badal GuptaBadal GuptaBadal Gupta was a Bengali Indian revolutionary who fought against British rule over India.-Early activities:Badal Gupta was born Sudhir Gupta in the village Purba Shimulia in the Bikrampur region of Dhaka, now in Munshiganj District, Bangladesh...
- Dinesh GuptaDinesh GuptaDinesh Chandra Gupta or Dinesh Gupta was a Bengali revolutionary who fought against British colonial rule.-Early activities:...
- Shyama Prasad Mukherjee
- Bipin Chandra PalBipin Chandra PalBipin Chandra Pal was an Indian nationalist. He was among the triumvirate of Lal Bal Pal.-Early life and background:...
- Bidhan Chandra RoyBidhan Chandra RoyBidhan Chandra Roy, M.R.C.P., F.R.C.S. was the second Chief Minister of West Bengal in India. He remained in his post for 14 years as a Indian National Congress candidate, from 1948 until his death in 1962. He was a highly respected physician and a renowned freedom fighter...
- Ashoke Kumar SenAshoke Kumar SenAshoke Kumar Sen was an Indian barrister, a former Cabinet minister of India, and an Indian parliamentarian....
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
The Ramon Magsaysay AwardRamon Magsaysay Award
The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is often considered Asia's Nobel...
, sometimes called "Asia's Nobel Prize", is given "to perpetuate his example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society." Kolkata winners include:
- Satyajit RaySatyajit RaySatyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
- Mahasweta DeviMahasweta DeviMahasweta Devi is an Indian social activist and writer.- Biography :Mahasweta Devi was born in 1926 in Dhaka, to literary parents in a Hindu Brahmin family. Her father Manish Ghatak was a well known poet and novelist of the Kallol era, who used the pseudonym Jubanashwa...
- Samaresh MajumdarSamaresh MajumdarSamaresh Majumdar is a well known contemporary Bengali writer. He spent his childhood years in the tea gardens of Duars, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, India. He was a student of the Jalpaiguri Zilla School, Jalpaiguri. He completed his bachelors in Bengali from Scottish Church College, Kolkata. His...
- Mother TeresaMother TeresaMother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
Artists
Kolkata saw the beginning of the Bengal school of artBengal school of art
The Bengal School of Art was a style of art that flourished in India during the British Raj in the early 20th century. It was associated with Indian nationalism, but was also promoted and supported by British arts administrators.-History:...
, founded by Abanindranath Tagore
Abanindranath Tagore
Abanindranath Tagore was the principal artist of the Bengal school and the first major exponent of swadeshi values in Indian art. He was also a noted writer, particularly for children...
, nephew of Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
. Other notable artists:
- Jamini RoyJamini Roy-Early life:Jamini Roy was born in 1887 into a middle-class family of land-owners in a village called Beliatore in the District of Bankura in Bengal .When he was sixteen he was sent to study at the Government School of Art in Calcutta...
- Paritosh SenParitosh SenParitosh Sen was a leading Indian artist. He was born in Dhaka , the present-day capital of Bangladesh...
- Anil Kumar DuttaAnil Kumar DuttaAnil Kumar Dutta was an Indian artist and educator.He was the founder-editor of Shilpa O Sahitya, a literary magazine and founder-principal of the Academy of Creative Art.- Early life and education :Anil Kumar Dutta was born in Sahanagar district of south Kolkata to a family hailing...
- Jogen ChowdhuryJogen ChowdhuryJogen Chowdhury is an eminent Indian painter and considered an important painter of 21st century India. He lives and works in Santiniketan. He graduated from the Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata and subsequently at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris in the year 1967. He has...
- Samir RoychoudhurySamir RoychoudhurySamir Roychowdhury , one of the founding fathers of the Hungry Generation 1961-1965 ,was born at Panihati, West Bengal, India in a family of artists, sculptors, photographers and musicians...
- Sudip RoySudip RoySudip Roy was born in Kolkata in West Bengal. He pursued arts in Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata and finished as the Gold Medallist. His early works included watercolors, pencil sketches, charcoals and a heady series of landscapes done in limpid line drawings...
- Ganesh PyneGanesh PyneGanesh Pyne is a Calcutta-born Indian artist.- Biographical :Pyne was born in Calcutta in 1937. He was a student at the Government College of Arts & Craft, Calcutta between 1955 and 1959...
- Devajyoti RayDevajyoti RayDevajyoti Ray is an Indian painter and installation artist whose works attained significance in the post-liberalization phase of Indian economy. His works have been exhibited internationally and have been acquired by many art academies...
Cinema
Satyajit RaySatyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
, who won the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement
Academy Honorary Award
The Academy Honorary Award, instituted in 1948 for the 21st Academy Awards , is given by the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to celebrate motion picture achievements that are not covered by existing Academy Awards, although prior winners of...
in 1992, lived in Kolkata and is considered among the four greatest directors of film history. Other notable filmmakers from Kolkata include:
- Tapan SinhaTapan SinhaTapan Sinha , was a Indian film director. He was arguably the most uncompromising filmmaker outside the orbit of Parallel Cinema.-Personal life and background:...
- Mrinal SenMrinal SenMrinal Sen is a Bengali Indian filmmaker. He was born on 14 May 1923, in the town of Faridpur, now in Bangladesh in a Hindu family. After finishing his high school there, he left home to come to Calcutta as a student and studied physics at the well-known Scottish Church College and at the...
- Ritwik Ghatak
- Buddhadeb DasguptaBuddhadeb DasguptaBuddhadeb Dasgupta is a poet and prominent contemporary Indian filmmaker, most known for films like Bagh Bahadur, Tahader Katha, Charachar and Uttara...
- Gautam GhoseGautam GhoseGoutam Ghose is one of the most acclaimed film directors of modern India. Born in Calcutta. Graduated from Calcutta University....
- Aparna SenAparna SenAparna Sen is a critically acclaimed Bengali Indian filmmaker, script writer, and actress. She is the winner of three National Film Awards and eight international film festival awards.-Biography:...
- Rituparno GhoshRituparno GhoshRituparno Ghosh is a Bengali film director. He has won 8 National Film Awards in India and several awards at international film festivals abroad.- Early life and background :...
- Nitin BoseNitin BoseNitin Bose was an Indian film director, cinematographer and screenwriter of the nation's film industry. He was born in Calcutta and died in the same city. In the 1930s and early 1940s, he worked with New Theatres, who made bilingual movies: in both Bengali and Hindi...
- Arin PaulArin PaulArin Paul is a Bengali film director, writer and researcher on film history.-Early life:Paul was born in Belur, West Bengal and raised in Shillong, Meghalaya and Calcutta. He attended St. Edmund's School, Shillong, Andrews High School, the Scottish Church Collegiate School, and Shyamaprasad...
- Hrishikesh MukherjeeHrishikesh MukherjeeHrishikesh Mukherjee ) was a famous Indian film director known for a number of films, including Satyakam, Chupke Chupke, Anupama, Anand, Abhimaan, Guddi, Gol Maal, Aashirwad, Bawarchi, and Namak Haraam.Popularly known as Hrishi-da, he directed 42 films during his career spanning over four decades,...
Notable actors include:
- Uttam KumarUttam KumarUttam Kumar is one of the most famous names of Indian Bengali Cinema.Born Arun Kumar Chatterjee in 1926 at Ahiritola, North Calcutta he is widely known as Uttam Kumar and Mahanayak . He remains as much of a cultural icon as he had been in his lifetime...
- Utpal DuttUtpal DuttUtpal Dutt was an Indian actor, director, and writer-playwright. He was primarily an actor in Bengali Theatre, where he became a pioneering figure in Modern Indian theatre, when he founded the 'Little Theater Group' in 1947, which enacted many English, Shakespearean and Brecht plays, in a period...
- Pramathesh BaruaPramathesh BaruaPramathesh Chandra Barua was a famous actor, director, and screenwriter of Indian films in the pre-independence era.-Early life:...
- Robi Ghosh
- Kanan DeviKanan DeviKanan Devi was an Indian actress and singer. She was among the early singing stars of Indian cinema, and is credited popularly as the first star of Bengali Cinema...
- Ruma Guha ThakurtaRuma Guha Thakurta-Early life:She was born in 1934 as Ruma Ghosh. She hails from a Brahmo Bengali family. Her father was Satyen Ghosh and her mother was Sati Devi, a singer. Sati Devi's younger sister Bijoya married film director Satyajit Ray. Thakurta had her formal education in many places including Santiniketan...
- Suchitra SenSuchitra SenSuchitra Sen ; or Rama Dasgupta , is an Indian actress who acted in several Bengali films. In particular, the movies in which she paired opposite another legend in Bengali films, Uttam Kumar, became classics in the history of Bengali cinema. She now lives a life of a recluse rarely making any...
- Shashi KapoorShashi KapoorShashi Kapoor , born Balbir-Raj Prithviraj Kapoor on 18 March 1938 in Calcutta , is an award-winning Indian film actor and film producer. He has also been film director and assistant director in Hindi Films. He is a member of the Kapoor family, a film dynasty in India's Bollywood cinema...
- Prosenjit
- Victor BanerjeeVictor BanerjeeVictor Banerjee is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi, Bengali and English language films. He has also appeared on a number of TV series on Indian television...
- Dhritiman ChaterjiDhritiman ChaterjiDhritiman Chaterji is an Indian actor. He began his acting career in 1970 as the protagonist of Satyajit Ray's Pratidwandi . Most of his acting work has been in the India's "parallel", or independent, cinema with filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Aparna Sen, among others...
- Soumitra ChatterjeeSoumitra ChatterjeeSoumitra Chatterjee or Soumitra Chattopadhyay is an iconic Bengali actor from India, known among other things for his frequent collaborations with the great Bengali film director Satyajit Ray and his constant comparison with the Bengali screen idol Uttam Kumar.-Background:Soumitra graduated from...
- Amitabh BachchanAmitabh BachchanAmitabh Bachchan is an Indian film actor. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Hindi cinema, and has since appeared in over 180 Indian films in a career spanning more than four decades...
- Mithun ChakrabortyMithun ChakrabortyMithun Chakraborty is an Indian film actor, social activist, and entrepreneur, who has won three National Film Awards. He made his acting debut with the arthouse drama Mrigaya , for which he won his first National Film Award for Best Actor....
- Rani Mukherji
- Bipasha BasuBipasha BasuBipasha Basu is an Indian actress who mainly appears in Bollywood films. A former model, she was the winner of the Ford's Godrej Cinthol Supermodel contest in 1996.-Early life:...
- Jaya BachchanJaya BachchanJaya Bhaduri Bachchan is an Indian actress and politician. She is an alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. Bachchan is the wife of Amitabh Bachchan, and is the mother of Shweta Bachchan-Nanda and Abhishek Bachchan...
- Konkona Sen SharmaKonkona Sen SharmaKonkona Sen Sharma is an Indian actress. She is the daughter of actress and filmmaker Aparna Sen. Sharma appears primarily in Indian arthouse and independent films, and her achievements in the genre have established her as one of the leading actresses of contemporary parallel cinema.Making her...
Theatre
Kolkata, once the cultural capital of India, still retains a strong tradition in cinema and theatre. Renowned figures include:- Badal Sircar (dramatist)
- Rudraprasad SenguptaRudraprasad SenguptaRudraprasad Sengupta is a Bengali Indian actor, director and cultural critic.- Biography :He was born in East Bengal , the son of Anant Sengupta and Usha Prabha Sengupta. He studied at the Scottish Church College of the University of Calcutta where he earned his B.A. and M.A degrees in English...
(actor and director) - Sambhu Mitra (actor and director)
- Bibhas ChakrabortyBibhas ChakrabortyBibhas Chakraborty is a leading Bengali theatre personality. He is an actor, playwright, theatre director, and theatre organiser. He received Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 1989...
(actor and director, cultural icon) - Mohit Chattopddhyay (dramatist)
- Anish Ghosh (actor and director)
Notable theatre groups:
- NandikarNandikarNandikar is a theatre group in India. The group has its headquarters in Kolkata in the state of West Bengal, but works around the world.__FORCETOC__-History:...
- Shohan
• Theatrecian
Music
Famous Composers:- Salil ChowdhurySalil ChowdhurySalil Chowdhury was an Indian music composer. He mainly composed for Bengali, Hindi, and Malayalam films. He was also a poet and a playwright. He is affectionately called Salilda by all his admirers....
- Rahul Dev BurmanRahul Dev BurmanRahul Dev Burman commonly known as R. D. Burman and nicknamed Pancham da or simply Pancham, was an influential Bollywood music composer. He was the only son of singer and Bollywood music composer Sachin Dev Burman and his wife Meera...
- Sachin Dev BurmanSachin Dev BurmanSachin Dev Burman , also credited as Burman da, Kumar Sachindra Dev Barman, Sachin karta or S. D. Burman, was one of the most famous music composers for Hindi movies and a Bengali singer and composer. His son Rahul Dev Burman also achieved great success as a Bollywood music director in his own...
- Bappi LahiriBappi LahiriBappi Lahiri or Alokesh Lahiri , born 27 November 1952, is a music director in the Hindi film industry. He pioneered the use of disco music in Indian cinema and sang some of his own compositions. He was popular in the 1980s with films like Disco Dancer, Namak Halaal and Sharaabi among others.-Early...
Hindustani Classical Singers/Maestros:
- Allauddin KhanAllauddin KhanAllauddin Khan , was a Bengali sarodiya and multi-instrumentalist, composer and one of the most renowned music teachers of the 20th Century in Indian classical music.In 1935, he toured Europe, along with Uday Shankar's ballet troupe, and later also worked at his...
- Ali Akbar KhanAli Akbar KhanAli Akbar Khan , often referred to as Khansahib or by the title Ustad , was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod...
- Ravi ShankarRavi ShankarRavi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
- Ananda ShankarAnanda ShankarAnanda Shankar was a Bengali musician best known for fusing Western and Eastern musical styles. He was married to Tanusree Shankar.-Early life:...
- Vilayat KhanVilayat KhanUstad Vilayat Khan was one of India's well known sitar maestros, born in Gauripur in Mymensingh, Bengal...
- Bade Ghulam Ali Khan
- Rashid KhanRashid KhanUstad Rashid Khan is an Indian classical musician in the Hindustani music tradition. He belongs to the Rampur-Sahaswan Gharana, and is the great grandson of Gharana founder Ustad Inayat Hussain Khan.He is married to Joyeeta Bose, from the illustrious family of Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose.In a...
- Nikhil BanerjeeNikhil BanerjeeNikhil Ranjan Banerjee was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar Gharana who played the stringed instrument sitar.-Early life and background:...
- Amjad Ali KhanAmjad Ali KhanAmjad Ali Khan is an Indian classical musician who plays the sarod. Khan was born into a musical family and has performed internationally since the 1960s...
- Bahadur KhanBahadur KhanUstad Bahadur Khan was a sarod player.-Early Life & Family:Ustad Bahadur Khan, a Bengali, was born on January 19, 1931 in Shibpur, Comilla, Bangladesh, , and died on October 3, 1989 in Calcutta, India...
- Ajoy ChakrabortyAjoy ChakrabortyPandit Ajoy Chakrabarty is an Indian Hindustani classical vocalist. He belongs to the Patiala gharana.-Early life and background:Chakrabarty was born in Bengal to Ajit Chakrabarty in a Hindu Brahmin family. They moved to India from his homeland, Bangladesh during the partition and raised his two...
- Anjan ChattopadhyayAnjan ChattopadhyayAnjan Chattopadhyay, the sitar player, born in a Bengali aristocratic family in Calcutta, India, was initiated to the art of sitar playing by his elder brother, a veteran Surbahar player, Pandit Gourisankar Chattopadhyay, a disciple of Pandit Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury...
Other singers
- Dwijendra Lal Roy
- K. C. DeyK. C. DeyKrishna Chandra De better known as K.C. Dey, was a Bengali actor, singer and music composer and teacher born in Calcutta . He was S.D. Burman's first musical teacher and mentor. He worked for New Theatres in Kolkata until 1940. He is best remembered for his Kirtan songs.Dey sang and composed...
- Gauhar Jan
- Pankaj MullickPankaj MullickPankaj Mullick, also known as Pankaj Kumar Mullick was a Bengali Indian music director, who was a pioneer of film music in Bengali cinema and Hindi cinema at the advent of playback singing, as well as an early exponent of Rabindra Sangeet.He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1970, followed by the...
- Kanan DeviKanan DeviKanan Devi was an Indian actress and singer. She was among the early singing stars of Indian cinema, and is credited popularly as the first star of Bengali Cinema...
- Ritu Guha
- Kanika BandyopadhyayKanika BandyopadhyayKanika Banerjee was an Indian Rabindra Sangeet singer.-Early life:Born on October 12, 1924 at Sonamukhi in Bankura district, Kanika joined Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan in West Bengal, India. She was trained in both classical and Rabindrasangeet in Sangeet Bhavana at Santiniketan...
- Suchitra MitraSuchitra MitraSuchitra Mitra was an Indian singer and composer, as well as a well-respected exponent of Rabindra Sangeet or the songs of Bengal's poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore. As an academic she remained a Professor and the Head of 'Rabindra Sangeet Department' at the Rabindra Bharati University for many...
- Hemanta Kumar MukhopadhyayHemanta Kumar MukhopadhyayHemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay also known as Hemanta Mukherjee was an Bengali singer, composer and producer. He sang in Hindi films under the name Hemant Kumar.-Early life:...
- Manna DeyManna DeyPrabodh Chandra Dey , better known by his nickname Manna Dey , is a playback singer in Bengali Assamese and Hindi films. Along with Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, he was a part of Indian film playback music from the 1950s to the 1970s. He has recorded more than 3500 songs over the course of...
- Kishore KumarKishore KumarKishore Kumar , born Abhas Kumar Ganguly, was an Indian film playback singer and an actor who also worked as lyricist, composer, producer, director, screenwriter and scriptwriter.Kishore Kumar was one of India's greatest performers of the late 20th century...
- Sandhya MukhopadhyaySandhya MukhopadhyaySandhya Mukhopadhyay is an Indian singer and musician, specialising in Bengali music. She was born in Kolkata, India. She is also known as Sandhya Mukherjee.She was very close friends with the late Alpana Banerjee...
- Debabrata BiswasDebabrata BiswasDebabrata Biswas , also known as George Biswas or George-da , was an Indian Rabindra Sangeet singer.-Early life:...
- Begum AkhtarBegum AkhtarAkhtari Bai Faizabadi or Begum Akhtar was a well known Indian singer of Ghazal, Dadra and Thumri.She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for vocal music, and was awarded Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan by Govt. of India...
- Geeta DuttGeeta DuttGeetā Dutt was a prominent singer in India. She found particular prominence as a playback singer in Hindi cinema...
- Usha UthupUsha UthupUsha Uthup is a popular Indian pop, jazz and playback singer. She is well known for popular hits in the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.She started her Bollywood playback career, when she sang an English verse in hit song, "Dum maro dum"" in Hare Rama Hare Krishna, and went on work with music...
- Sumita Ghosh
- Ruma Guha ThakurtaRuma Guha Thakurta-Early life:She was born in 1934 as Ruma Ghosh. She hails from a Brahmo Bengali family. Her father was Satyen Ghosh and her mother was Sati Devi, a singer. Sati Devi's younger sister Bijoya married film director Satyajit Ray. Thakurta had her formal education in many places including Santiniketan...
- Swagatalakshmi DasguptaSwagatalakshmi DasguptaSwagatalakshmi Dasgupta is an inevitable name in the divine world of Rabindra Sangeet since the 90's. She is an M.A. from, Rabindra Bharati University took her lesson in classical music from her father Shri Pabitra Dasgupta and Rabindra Sangeet from Smt. Maya Sen. She is an 'A' grade artist of...
- Suman Chatterjee
- Sachin Dev BurmanSachin Dev BurmanSachin Dev Burman , also credited as Burman da, Kumar Sachindra Dev Barman, Sachin karta or S. D. Burman, was one of the most famous music composers for Hindi movies and a Bengali singer and composer. His son Rahul Dev Burman also achieved great success as a Bollywood music director in his own...
- Anjan DuttaAnjan DuttaAnjan Dutta is a popular artist of the 1990s Bengali music scene defined by anyodharar gaan . Anjan Dutta's style of music is different from the others in the sense that it has simple tunes, one that is reminiscent of western folk music. His lyrics are simple and more natural...
- Rupam IslamRupam IslamRupam Islam is a playback singer, song writer, composer and the lead singer of the band Fossils. He is a recipient of National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer. He won the award in 2010, for his work in the film Mahanagar @ Kolkata...
- NachiketaNachiketaNachiketa is the child protagonist in an ancient Hindu fable about the nature of the soul and Brahman. The story is told in the Katha Upanishad , though the name has several earlier references. He was taught Self-knowledge, the separation of the human soul from the body, by the god of Death, Yama...
- Rabin Nandy
Choir groups:
- Calcutta Youth ChoirCalcutta Youth ChoirCalcutta Youth Choir was set up in 1958 by Ruma Guha Thakurta with Salil Chowdhury and Satyajit Ray.Calcutta Youth Choir is known for their performance of folk and mass songs. Several years ago, the choir broke out with the song 'Aaj joto juddhabaaj'. Shibdas Bandopadhyay wrote the words and V....
- IPTAIptaIPTA can refer to:* Indian People's Theatre Association* International Pulsar Timing Array...
- Saptayan
Bengali bands:
- Moheener GhoraguliMoheener GhoraguliMoheener Ghoraguli or Mohiner Ghoraguli was a Bengali independent music group from Kolkata, established in 1975, it was arguably Bengal's and India's first band...
- Bhoomi
- PrithibiPrithibi (Band)Prithibi is a Bengali rock band officially formed in Kolkata, India in the year 2005. But its original formation goes back to 2001 at Ashutosh College. Presently the band consists of Kausiq , Bubun , Prosanto , Raja and Arnab...
- Cactus
- ChandrabindooChandrabindoo (band)Chandrabindoo , based in Kolkata, is a bangla band. Their name refers both to the last character in the Bengali alphabet and to a dialogue from the nonsense work HaJaBaRaLa by Sukumar Ray....
- FossilsFossils (band)Fossils is a Bangla Rock band formed in Kolkata, West Bengal, India in 1998.The group is considered one of the pioneering rock acts in Kolkata's Bangla music scene....
- InsomniaInsomnia (rock band)Insomnia is a rock band based in Kolkata, West Bengal. The band's repertoire includes both English and Bangla songs. The band has an album each in English and Bangla . Insomnia is a rock band from Eastern India with bilingual repertoire...
- Ishaan
- KrosswindzKrosswindzKrosswindz is a Classic Rock/folk-fusion band, based in Kolkata, India. They have played all over India and abroad, and have helped urbanize the folk music of Bengal and have tried to make it popular...
- Lakkhichhara
- Parash Pathar
- Shohor
- Calcutta Blues
- Shankhochil
Contemporary Bollywood musicians:
- Kumar SanuKumar SanuKumar Sanu Kumar Sanu Kumar Sanu (alias Kedarnath Bhattacharya , born in Kolkata, is a leading Indian Bollywood playback singer. He was awarded the Filmfare Best Male Playback Award over five consecutive years. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri in 2009....
- Abhijeet Bhattacharya
- Babul SupriyoBabul SupriyoBabul Supriyo is an Indian playback singer. He calls himself a clone of Kumar Sanu.He was born Supriya Baral, and spent his early childhood, and even graduated from university with that name. He would change his first name's spelling from Supriya to Supriyo as the former signified a female name,...
- Shantanu MoitraShantanu MoitraShantanu Moitra is an Indian music director who has composed music for the Hindi film industry, and is most known for his score in films Parineeta , Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi , "Lage Raho Munnabhai" and 3 Idiots , and private albums, Mann ke Manjeere and Ab ke Saawan sung by Shubha Mudgal.-Early...
- PritamPritamPritam Chakraborty , better known as Pritam is a music director and composer from Kolkata who currently works in Bollywood, Mumbai.- Early life :...
- ShaanShaan (singer)Shaan , is an Indian playback singer, and television host. He hosted the shows Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs, Star Voice of India and "Star Voice of India 2"...
- Shreya Ghoshal
Dance
Prominent dancers of the city include:- Uday ShankarUday ShankarUday Shankar , the pioneer of modern dance in India, and a world renowned Indian dancer and choreographer, was most known for adapting Western theatrical techniques to traditional Indian classical dance, imbued with elements of Indian classical, folk, and tribal dance, thus laying the roots of...
and his wife Amala Shankar - Ananda ShankarAnanda ShankarAnanda Shankar was a Bengali musician best known for fusing Western and Eastern musical styles. He was married to Tanusree Shankar.-Early life:...
Among the many different dance forms prevalent in Kolkata, notable are:
- Rabindra Nritya NatyaRabindra Nritya NatyaRabindra nritya natya is the term given to the three dance-dramas composed by Bengal's poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore: Chitrangada, Chandalika and Shyama. The principal characteristic of these works is that the story is told entirely through dance and song. The dances included in them were in...
- Bharatnatyam
- ManipuriManipuri danceManipuri dance is one of the major Indian classical dance forms. It originates from Manipur, a state in north-eastern India on the border with Myanmar . In Manipur, surrounded by mountains and geographically isolated at the meeting point of the orient and mainland India, the form developed its own...
- KathakKathakKathak is one of the eight forms of Indian classical dances, originated from Uttar Pradesh, India. This dance form traces its origins to the nomadic bards of ancient northern India, known as Kathaks, or storytellers...
- KuchipudiKuchipudiKuchipudi is a Classical Indian dance form Andhra Pradesh, India. It is also popular all over South India. Kuchipudi is the name of a village in the Divi Taluka of Krishna district that borders the Bay of Bengal and with resident Brahmins practicing this traditional dance form, it acquired the...
Magic
Kolkata is the magic capital of India and has produced internationally famous magicians and performers, including:- P. C. SorcarP. C. SorcarP.C. Sorcar was the stage name of Protul Chandra Sorcar , a famous Indian magician. He was an internationally active magician throughout the 1950s and 1960s, performing his Indrajal show before live audiences and on television...
- P. C. Sorcar, Jr.P. C. Sorcar, Jr.P. C. Sorcar, Jr. is an Indian magician based in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He is the second son of legendary Indian magician P. C. Sorcar, and is today considered the most prominent magician in India...
- Manick SorcarManick SorcarManick Sorcar is an Indian American artist, engineer, and entrepreneur based in Denver, Colorado, USA....
Summer OlympicOlympic GamesThe Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
medallists
- Norman PritchardNorman PritchardNorman Gilbert Pritchard was an athlete from India who went on to star in Hollywood and Broadway...
, track and field, 1900 - Richard James AllenRichard Allen (field hockey)Richard James Allen was an Indian field hockey player who competed in the Summer Olympics in 1928, 1932, and 1936. He was born in Nagpur, India and did his schooling from the prestigious Oak Grove School, Mussoorie and later at the St.Joseph's College, NainitalIn 1928 he played five matches as...
, hockey, 1928, 1932, 1936 - Leslie ClaudiusLeslie ClaudiusLeslie Walter Claudius was an Indian field hockey player, of Anglo-Indian descent. In 1971 he was awarded the Padma Shri...
, hockey, 1924, 1928, 1936 - Gurbux SinghGurbux SinghGurbux Singh is a former field hockey player from India who was a member of the India national field hockey team that won the gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics. Four years later he captured the bronze...
, hockey, 1964, 1968 - Vece PaesVece PaesVece Paes was a former Indian hockey midfielder, and representing the Indian team in the 1972 Munich Olympics, that won the bronze medal. He is the father of India's tennis player Leander Paes. He is also a doctor in sports medicine....
, hockey, 1980 - Leander Adrian PaesLeander PaesLeander Adrian Paes, pronounced pās, is an Indian professional tennis player who currently features in the doubles events in the ATP tour and the Davis Cup tournament...
, tennis, 1996
Other sportspersons
- Sourav GangulySourav GangulySourav Chandidas Ganguly is a former Indian cricketer, and captain of the Indian national team. Born into an affluent family, Ganguly was introduced into the world of cricket by his elder brother Snehasish. He is regarded as one of India's most successful captains in modern times. He started his...
, cricketer - Pankaj RoyPankaj RoyPankaj Roy was an Indian cricketer. A right-handed opening batsman, he is best known for establishing the world record opening partnership of 413 runs, together with Vinoo Mankad, against New Zealand at Chennai. The record stood until 2008. He was honoured with the Padma Shri...
, cricketer - Chuni GoswamiChuni GoswamiSubimal Goswami commonly known by his nickname Chuni Goswami is an Indian international footballer and first class cricketer. He was born in Kishoreganj District of undivided Bengal . As a striker, he played 50 international matches representing India...
, footballer - Shailen Manna, footballer, India's football captain guides to Gold in 1951 Asiad
- Pradip Kumar BanerjeePradip Kumar BanerjeePradip Kumar Banerjee or PK Banerjee as he is called often, is one of the famous football players in India. He was born in Jalpaiguri in West Bengal. He was one of the first recipients of Arjuna Award, when the awards were instituted in 1961. He was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri Award in...
, footballer - Krishanu DeyKrishanu DeyKrishanu Dey was an Indian football player from Kolkata, India. He was an attacking midfielder and was known as the "Indian Maradona" among his fans due to his footballing skills and playing style.-Club career:...
, footballer - Sudeep Chatterjee, footballer
- Mihir SenMihir SenMihir Sen was an Indian lawyer more notable for his career as a record-setting swimmer.- English channel swim :...
, record swimmer - Jyotirmoyee SikdarJyotirmoyee SikdarJyotirmoyee Sikdar is a Member of Parliament, India representing Krishnagar of West Bengal in the 14th Lok Sabha. She is affiliated to the Communist Party of India ....
, track and field - Arjun AtwalArjun AtwalArjun Singh Atwal is an Indian professional golfer who has played on the Asian Tour and the European Tour and is the first player born in India to become a member of, and later win on the U.S.-based PGA Tour.-Early life:...
, golfer - Surya Shekhar GangulySurya Shekhar GangulySurya Shekhar Ganguly is an Indian chess Grandmaster and a chess prodigy from Kolkata. He started playing chess at the age of 5 and achieved great successes at National Junior and World Junior Championships since the age of 8. He also set a record of being the youngest player to beat a Grandmaster...
, chess grandmaster - Dibyendu BaruaDibyendu BaruaDibyendu Barua is a chess Grandmaster from the city of Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. He is the second Indian to become a Grandmaster, after Viswanathan Anand. In 1978, Barua, as a 12-year-old, became the youngest participant in the Indian National Championship of chess...
, chess grandmaster - Manoj Tiwary, cricketer
- Zafar Imam, Taekwondo, Kick Boxing
- Robindra Nath Das, Taekwondo
- Gobar Guha,Wrestler
- Rishabh Ahmed Khan,Cricketer