Bengali Film Industry
Introduction
BENGALI Cinema is also known (“Tolly being a proper name and Gunge meaning locality”) as Tollywood. It is basically shot in Bengali language which is being spoken in West Bengal, India. The Telegu industry is also called Tollywood owing to the name of the Telugu language and the word Hollywood.
This industry is based in the Tollygunge region of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The origins of the nickname Tollywood, a portmanteau of the words Tollygunge and Hollywood, date back to 1932.
Bengal film industry is in the 7th position all over India.
of Screens – approx. 200 in the state of West Bengal.
Main Distributors- SVF, Surinder Films, Eskay Movies, Eros International, Grassroot Entertainment, Dev Entertainment Ventures, Reliance Entertainment Etc.
There is another part of this industry called Theatre, which is based on live performance. There is a difference between films and theatre artists, in films shots are recorded in many takes but theatre actors have only one chance/one take because of their
Most film actors are from the theatre. The theatre Lebedev established at Ezra Street was used for 1st time Bengali actors. There were two theatre halls for the English in Calcutta. In 1872 Girish Chandra Ghosh established the National Theatre in Calcutta, where the 1stplay ever commercially staged was Nildarpan.
History
Dhirendra Nath Ganguly (Known as D.G) established the Indo British Film Co, 1st Bengali-owned production company, in 1918. In 1919 Bengal feature film, Billwamangal was produced.
In 1931 Jamai Shashthi was the 1st Bengali film with dialogues.
The Bengali film industry has produced classics such as Nagarik (1952), The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959), Jalsaghar (1958), Ajantrik (1958), Neel Akasher Neechey (1959), Devdas, Devi (1960), Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960), the Calcutta trilogies (1971–1976), etc. The most well-known Bengali actor to date has been Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen. They were known as the eternal pair of the 1950s.
Since 1956, music became a very charming point in cinema. Bengali bands use a wide variety of styles such as rock, pop, folk (Bhatiali, Shyama Sangeet, Baul), and fusion.
1st colored Bengali film was Kanchenjunga (1962) by Satyajit Ray.
In the modern revival 90s-2017 Rituparno Ghosh, Aparna sen, Goutam Ghosh, Srijit Mukherjee, and many more directors have turned the cinematic spotlight in Kolkata.(Popular Movies- GoynarBaksho. Byomkesh Bakshi, Hemlock Society, Prakton, Moner manus etc.)
2017-present – now some of the films by the directors from this era that have gained success in recent years are Amazon Obhijaan, Gumnaami, Dracula Sir, Nagarkirtan, Praktan, BibahoDiaries, Golondaaj.
Bengali superstars are Prosenjit Chatterjee, Jishu Sengupta, Dev, Jeet, Abir Chatterjee, Anirban Bhattacharya, and a Few Mainstream directors Srijit Mukherji, Aniket Chattopadhyay, Raja Chanda, Raj Chakraborty, Shiboprasad Mukherjee, Pavel, Jaydeep Mukherjee, and Kamaleshwar Mukharjee. Now, this is getting more success.
Budget
- Bengal industry has always tried but failed to compete with the Hindi industry for their low-budget segment. A number of Tollywood movies are regarded as successful. One of the highest budget Bengali movies is Amazon Obhijaan Rs.20.00 crore (US$ 2.6 million). Bengali movies are produced with a budget of Rs. 50lacs to Rs.55 million per movie on average. Now this industry is improving with the help of Post-production processes like animation, VFX, and many more creative things. Some popular actors have created their own production house. However, they are increasing their budget now and have very great success in movies.
Highest Collection Of Film
Highest collection of some movies till date are-
| Rank | Movie | Year | Director | Studio(s) | World Wide Gross | Note |
| 1 | Amazon Obhijaan | 2017 | Kamaleshwar Mukherjee | Shree Venkatesh Films | ₹80 crore (US$10 million) ALL TIME BLOCKBUSTER | Fictional Sequel of ChanderPahar Written by Bibhuti bhushan Bandopadhyay Action-Adventure-Drama |
| 2 | ChanderPahar | 2013 | Kamaleswar Mukherjee | Shree Venkatesh Films | ₹35.00 crore (US$4.6 million) ALL TIME BLOCKBUSTER | A film based on the novel, named Chander Pahar. It was reportedly being made with a budget of nearly ₹150 million (US$2.0 million), making it one of the most expensive in the Bengali film industry. |
| 3 | Golondaaj | 2021 | Dhrubo Banerjee | Shree Venkatesh Films | ₹16 crore (US$2.1 million) | Based on Indian First Footballer Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari ALL TIME BLOCKBUSTER |
| 4 | Paglu | 2011 | Rajiv Kumar Biswas | Surinder Films | ₹11 crore (US$1.4 million) ALL TIME BLOCKBUSTER | Romantic-action based film is a remake of Telegu film Devadasu |
| 5 | Tonic | 2021 | Abhijit Sen | ₹10 crore (US$1.3 million) | Drama, family movie | |
| 5 | Boss 2: Back to Rule | 2017 | Baba Yadav | Jeetz Filmworks Grassroot Entertainment | ₹10 crore (US$1.3 million) | Action/thriller/crime Film |
Cast & Crew of Success
- The success of any comes from a good concept and its execution.
Satyajit Ray, was a Bengali motion-picture director, writer, and illustrator who brought the Indian cinema to world recognition with PatherPanchali (1955; The Song of the Road) and its two sequels, known as the Apu Trilogy. He made this industry popular all over India. Rituparno Ghosh, Goutam Ghose, Aparna Sen, Tapan Sinha, Kaushik Ganguly, and Raj Chakraborty are also famous directors in this industry.
One of Bengali cinema’s most renowned directors in today’s era, Srijit Mukherji, made his first feature film, Autograph, in 2010, a tribute to Satyajit Ray’s 1966 film Nayak. It was showcased at international events like Abu Dhabi Film Festival and London Indian Film Festival and won 41 awards.
Now, Kamaleshwar Mukherjee, Abhijit Sen, etc directors have hot great success in their movies like Tonic, Cockpit, Durgesh Gorer Guptodhon, Uma, Belasesh, etc.
- Bengal industry has some renowned actors. In the 90s Uttam Kumar, Soumitra Chtyapadhyay, Suchitra Sen, etc actors were very popular. The Bengali film industry is growing day by day and is making big-time at the box office worldwide. This industry gets more success by getting some very popular superstars who changed
Male Superstar :
Female Superstar :
Awards
There are 7 international award winning Bengali movies -‘Pather Panchali’ (1955) ;’Aparajito’ (1956);’ Apur Sansar’ (1959);’Kharij’ (1982); ‘Asha JaoarMajhe’ (2014); ’36 Chowringhee Lane’ (1981).
The most renowned award received and given is Filmfare Awards given by Filmfare magazine. The Filmfare Awards are presented annually by The Times Group to honor both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the film industry of India. The Filmfare ceremony is one of the oldest film events in India. The awards were first introduced in 1954.
Filmfare Awards Winnings By Bengal Film Industry 2021
Awarded for | Winners |
Best Film | BorunbaburBondhu (2019) Tonic (2021) |
Best Director | Anik Duttafor BorunbaburBondhu (2019) |
Critics Best Film | Binisutoy (2020) |
Best Actor in a leading role (male/female) | ParanBandhopadhyayfor Tonic(2021) Jaya Ahsan for Binisutoy (2020) |
CriticsBest Actor in aleading role (male/female) | Arjun Chakroborty for Avijatrik (2021) Anirban Bhattacharya for DwitiyoPurush (2020) Arpita Chatterjee for Abyakto (2018) |
Best supporting actor/actress | SamiulAlam for Tangra Blues (2021) AparajitaAuddy for Cheeni (2020) |
Best Music Album | Shantanu Maitra, Anupam Roy, Prasenjit Mukherjee, Shibabrata Biswas for Prem Tame movie (2021) |
Best Lyrics | NilanjanChakroborty for song Behaya, movie Ekannoborti |
Best Playback Singer (male/female) | Ishan Mitra for song Mayarkangal, movie olpoholeosotti LagnajitaChakroborty for song Behaya, movie Ekannoborti |
Conclusion
- On that note, we are glad to convey that we have arrived at the end of the article. Success never belongs to just one person. A whole crew that comes together with the same motive achieves huge success. A film’s success is a great example of it. But not only success but also failure must share which is done by all most of the cast and crew. For newcomers, they should have good contact, proper guidance, and a little bit of knowledge about this industry and talent. The other way is to give auditions continuously.
Top 13 Interesting Facts About Bengal Industry
The Anandalok Awards ceremony is one of the most prominent film events for Bengali cinema in India.
100-160 Bengali movies are released every year and made with a budget of Rs. 50,00,000 to Rs. 55 million on average per film.
The first Bengali talkies Jamai Shashthi (as a short film) were released on 11 April 1931 at the Crown Cinema Hall in Calcutta.
The first Bengali talkies as the full-length feature film Dena Paona was released on 30 December 1931 at the Chitra Cinema Hall in Calcutta.
The Bengali film industry was based in Tollygunge, an area in South Kolkata, West Bengal, which is more distinctive and artistically inclined than the usual musical cinema in India.
‘Kangchenjunga’ (1962) is the first colour Bengali film and is also considered the first Indian anthology film.
Bengali cinema, also known as Tollywood, refers to the Indian Bengali-language film industry based in the Tollygunge area of Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Jeetendra Madnani, the King of the Bengali Film Industry.
In 2019, a total of 129 Bengali films were released, accounting for 6% of all films produced in India, although they contribute only 0.6% to the domestic collections of the Indian film industries.
The Indian film industry is growing at a rate of >10% per annum, the domestic box office collection of Bengali films is declining at the rate of 33%, i.e., the Bengali film industry is losing 1/3% of its business every year.
Dhirendranath Ganguly is known as the father of Bengali cinema.
Prosenjit Chatterjee is richest (100 crore; US$ 13 million) actor in Tollywood.
Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra Rustomji is the first feature film produced in Bengali in 1917.
Satabdi Maity
Writer
13angle
