Buddhadeb Dasgupta

Buddhadeb Dasgupta was born in a Vaidya family in 1944 in Anara near Puruliya in Southern West Bengal, and was the third of nine siblings. His father Tarkanta Dasgupta was a doctor with the Indian Railways, thus he spent the early part of childhood traveling. At the age of twelve, he was sent to Calcutta to study, earlier at Shibpur SSPS Vidyalaya and later at Dinabandhu School, Howrah. Post-independence his father was transferred first to Kharagpur in West Midnapore district and Manendragarh (now in Chhattisgarh). He studied economics at the Scottish Church College and the University of Calcutta.

Buddhadeb started his career as a lecturer of economics, at the Shyamsundar College of the University of Burdwan followed by City College, Calcutta. In 1976, when disenchanted by the gap he perceived between the economic theory he taught and the socio-political reality, he took to film making. Meanwhile, his membership with the Calcutta Film Society, where he started going in his senior high school along with his uncle, exposed him to the works of directors like Charlie Chaplin, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Vittorio De Sica, Roberto Rossellini, and Michelangelo Antonioni. This, in turn, inspired him to take film making as a mode of expression. He started his film career with a 10-minute documentary in 1968, The Continent of Love; eventually he made his first full-length feature film, Dooratwa (Distance) in 1978. His lyricism has been extended to cinema as well. During the early stages of his film career, Dasgupta made films inspired by Satyajit Ray's realistic films and later moved on to other forms of Andrei Tarkovsky. Some of his most acclaimed films are Bagh Bahadur, Tahader Katha, Charachar and Uttara.

• The Continent of Love (1968) • Dholer Raja Khirode Natta (1973) • Fishermen of Sundarban (1974) • Saratchandra (1975) • Rhythm of Steel (1981) • Indian Science Marches Ahead (1984) • Vigyan O Tar Avishkar (1980) • Story of Glass (1985) • India on the Move (1985) • Ceramics (1986) • Aranyak (1996) • Contemporary Indian Sculpture (1987) • History of Indian Jute (1990)

His youngest daughter, Alokananda Dasgupta, a trained classical pianist, composed the background score for his 2013 film, Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa.

He died at the age of 77 on 10 June 2021.

• Samayer Kache (1968) (short) • Dooratwa (1978) (Distance) • Neem Annapurna (1979) (Bitter Morsel) • Grihajuddha (1982) (The Civil War) • Andhi Gali (1984) (Blind Alley, Hindi) • Phera (1988) (The Return) • Bagh Bahadur (1989) (The Tiger Man) • Tahader Katha (1992) (Their Story) • Charachar (1993) (Shelter of the Wings) • Lal Darja (1997) (The Red Door) • Uttara (2000) (The Wrestlers) • Mondo Meyer Upakhyan (2002) (A Tale of a Naughty Girl) • Swapner Din (2004) (Chased by Dreams) • Ami, Yasin Ar Amar Madhubala (2007) (The Voyeurs) • Kaalpurush (2008) (Memories in the Mist) • Janala (2009) (The Window) • Mukti (2012) • Choli Ke Pichey (2012) (TV Movie) • Arjun (2012) (TV Movie) • The Station (2013) (TV Movie) • Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa (2013) (Sniffer, Hindi) • Tope (2017) • Urojahaj (2018)

A documentary titled Maestro: A Portrait — A Film on Buddhadeb Dasgupta was released in 2013 by filmmaker Supriya Suri. The documentary examines Dasgupta's life and works.