Tapan Sinha

He was one of the acclaimed filmmakers of Parallel Cinema movement of India.

Sinha was born in Murshidabad, West Bengal. His empathy for films began from his student life. He was admitted in the Durgacharan M. E. School of Bhagalpur in the fifth standard. Later it went on to become a secondary school. His Principal was Surendranath Gangopadhyay who happened to be Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's maternal uncle. He studied physics at the University of Patna and later earned an M.Sc. at the Rajabazar Science College, University of Calcutta. He married Indian actress Arundhati Devi. Their son is Indian scientist professor, Anindya Sinha. On 15 January 2009, he died of pneumonia and septicaemia.

Charles Dickens's novel, A Tale of Two Cities and the cinematic adaptation featuring Ronald Colman inspired Sinha to get involved in film-making. Tapan Sinha went to London in the 1950s to learn film-making. On reaching London, he contacted CryHearsth, Manager of Pinewood Studios. Through his help, he managed to obtain his first assignment. He got to work in director Charles Crichton's unit as a sound engineer. Cryton, who made some British comedies like The Lavender Hill Mob etc. was then working for a film called The Hunted. Sinha started as a sound recording engineer and gradually shifted to directing. Tapan Sinha was greatly influenced by contemporary American and British Cinema, in his youth. Among his favourite directors were John Ford, Carol Reed, and Billy Wilder. He used to think that he had to make films on the lines of his favourites. Rabindranath Tagore's work had been a great source of inspiration to him as well. Different Tagore works had special significance to him in various moments of his life. Sinha's first film, Ankush, is based on the Narayan Ganguly's story Sainik, which had an elephant as the central character. Sinha's Ek Je Chilo Desh is a fantasy film, based on a story by Shankar. He made a few documentaries, including a biographical film on scientist Jagadish Bose. He also used Rabindrasangeet in other films. Sinha's Sagina Mahato might be categorized as a political film, although it was reactionary in nature and was a direct attack on left-wing politics. It tried to disrepute organized struggle by championing the individual heroism of a worker. The Hindi version of the film, named "Sagina", also stars Dilp Kumar as the central character. The film was entered into the 7th Moscow International Film Festival. His Daughters of This Century Starring Shabana Azmi, Jaya Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, Nandita Das, Deepa Sahi, and Sulabha Deshpande in central roles, marked a new beginning in Indian Cinema. Raja Sen's documentary on Tapan Sinha is entitled Filmmaker for Freedom. Sinha's wife, filmmaker and actress Arundhuti Devi, died in 1990. Sinha's final venture, the children's filme Anokha Moti, was incomplete. The film stars Arjun Chakravorty, and is being made in Hindi. Sinha composed the music for many of his films. At the end of his career, he composed the music for the Bengali film Tara, directed by Bratya Basu, which was released after his death.

On 15 January 2009, he died of pneumonia and septicaemia.

Aadmi Aur Aurat is based on a story by Prafulla Roy. Amol Palekar and Mahua Roy Choudhury acted in this telefilm. Aadmi Aur Aurat was remade in Bengali as Manush (starring Samit Bhanja and Devika Mukherjee) by the director himself. Sinha made another telefilm Didi with Deepti Naval as the central character. Sinha made a detective TV serial Hutumer Naksa.