Rituparno Ghosh (English: Rituparno-Ghosh; born- 31 August, 1963; died- 30 May, 2013) was a famous director, writer and actor of Bengali films. National Award winner Rituparno Ghosh was famous in the national and international world for films like ‘Chokher Bali’, ‘Raincoat’ and ‘Abohoman’. He and his films had won a record twelve ‘National Awards’. Rituparno Ghosh was one of those directors who considered film as an art.
He never made films keeping business or box office in mind. He had his own thinking, style and he made films according to his mood. In a very short time he had created a special identity for himself. Ghosh started his career in the world of advertising and soon turned to films. In his 19-year film career, Rituparno Ghosh directed 19 films and acted in three films.
Rituparno Ghosh was born on 31 August 1963 in Kolkata, West Bengal. His father’s name was Sunil Ghosh. Sunil Ghosh was a documentary filmmaker and painter. Rituparno Ghosh got the inspiration of filmmaking from his father. Rituparno Ghosh received his early schooling from ‘South Point High School’. He received his economics degree from ‘Jadavpur University’, Kolkata. Later, he presented his modern ideas through films and soon made his mark as a filmmaker who enriched ‘Indian cinema’.
Rituparno Ghosh, who started his career in the world of advertising, started his film career by producing children’s films. He started gaining fame in 1994 by directing the children’s film ‘Hirer Aangti’. After this, he was awarded the ‘National Award’ in 1995 for ‘Unishe April’. This film was inspired by the famous film director Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Autumn Sonata’. In this film, Rituparno Ghosh had minutely outlined the strained relationship between mother and daughter. A working woman is successful in her professional career, but she is unsuccessful in her family life. This affects her daughter and the daughter is angry with her mother for giving too much importance to her business. Aparna Sen, Debashree Roy and Prasannajit Chatterjee acted in this film. This film was highly appreciated by cine lovers. People who knew him started calling him ‘Ritu Da’.[1]
Rituparno Ghosh gained immense popularity through his films. All the big film stars readily agreed to work with him because working in his films was a matter of pride. The complexity of relationships and offbeat subjects were the specialty of his films. Bengali was his mother tongue and he felt comfortable in this language. Therefore, he made most of his films in Bengali. The audience watching cinema in film festivals and the lovers of offbeat films eagerly awaited Ritu Da’s films.
After the success of the film ‘Hirer Aangti’, which was a children’s film, it became common for Rituparno Ghosh’s films to receive ‘National Awards’. Sometimes the actors, sometimes the writers and sometimes the film would receive the ‘National Award’. In the year 1999, actress Kiran Kher won the ‘National Award’ for the best actress for the film ‘Barivali’ directed by Rituparno Ghosh. ‘Barivali’ was the story of a woman whose would-be husband dies a day before the marriage and after this she lives a lonely life. Rituparno Ghosh made a total of 19 films and won 12 ‘National Awards’. These awards reflect his ability.[1]
