scorecardresearch
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
TopicBengali cinema

Topic: Bengali cinema

Bengali films facing identity crisis. Losing box office battle to Pathaans and RRRs

When movies do dive deep into Bengali essentialism, they tend to be unrelatable to a large audience, often indulging in esoteric plots.

Khufiya to Kadak Singh, India is warming up to Bangladeshi actors. ‘Talent is finally getting shared’

For many Bangladeshi actors, Bollywood is a natural progression from Tollywood, the film industry of West Bengal.

Parambrata Chatterjee is a ‘man written by a woman’. He is Bengali cinema’s Irrfan Khan

Parambrata avoids the commercial, and often toxic male hero. OTT offers him a chance to explore the other side of masculinity like Dr Sudip from Bulbul & Satyaki in Kahaani.

SVF is West Bengal’s own YRF. But this Tollywood kingmaker began with a rejection

Begun by two cousins in the 1990s, SVF has its fingers in many pies from film and TV to OTT platform Hoichoi. It has also constructed almost 20 theatres across West Bengal.

Bengali cinema has an addiction problem—Now, Byomkesh, Feluda detective-verse about to expand

When Dibakar Banerjee tried to contemporarise Byomkesh merging 3 stories to make the 2015 Hindi film starring Sushant Singh Rajput, it wasn’t stomached easily.

Price of failed ambition? Tough question for Bengal film world as 4 women found dead in 15 days

Pallavi Dey, Bidisha De Majumdar, Manjusha Neogi and Saraswati Das — four members of Bengali entertainment industry have been found dead within a fortnight.

Bollywood has miles to go before it can produce Kaala, Asuran, Karnan or even a Jai Bhim

Tamil film industry used to be like any other Indian film Industry about a decade ago. But then it delved into anti-caste movies that even Hindi and Bengali new wave films didn't.

Uttam Kumar’s Saptapadi is the 1960s’ inter-faith love story that rings true even today

Saptapadi’s famous, moving Othello scene, which was directed separately by Utpal Dutt, deserves special praise.

Mrinal Sen’s Padatik, about dispirited Communists in 1970s Calcutta, is a tale of our times

Padatik is last in Mrinal Sen’s Calcutta trilogy, in which Communists are risking their lives for a cause that forever seems out of reach.

Satyajit Ray: Cine maestro & literary genius who could say no to Indira Gandhi, Narasimha Rao

Ray was a true auteur — a director, scriptwriter, editor, he would decide the music, set up the scene and props, design posters, and cast the actors.

On Camera

Bihar mimics 19th-century American South. Citizenship is now weaponised to exclude voters

Disenfranchisement by institutional fiat is profoundly undemocratic. The effect of the ECI's new documentary process in Bihar will tilt the scales in favour of the BJP.

India-US set to ink mini trade deal soon, reach understanding on agricultural & dairy products

Mini deal will likely see no cut in 10% baseline tariff on Indian exports announced by Trump on 2 April, it is learnt, but additional 26% tariffs are set to be reduced.

Not just AK-203, India & Russia to jointly manufacture AK-19 and PPK-20 for domestic use and export 

India-Russia JV is also racing to deliver 7,000 more AK-203 assault rifles by 15 Aug. These are currently being made with 50% indigenisation and this will surge to 100% by 31 December.

Strategic partner one day, tactical nightmare the next: India’s learning Trumplomacy the hard way

Public, loud, upfront, filled with impropriety and high praise sometimes laced with insults. This is what we call Trumplomacy. But the larger objective is the same: American supremacy.