Bengali Cinema

Today, there are two Bengali film industries, one in Kolkata, the Cinema of West Bengal is one of many centres for Indian regional filmmaking and the other one is in Dhaka called the Cinema of Bangladesh is the main national film industry of Bangladesh.

Brief Bengali cinema history

The history of cinema in Bengal dates back to the 1890s, when the first "bioscopes" were shown in theatres in Kolkata, West Bengal. A bioscope is an old fashioned projector which at the time was used to show clips of moving image. Within a decade, Hiralal Sen (a Bengali photographer) set up the Royal Bioscope Company, producing scenes from the stage productions of a number of popular shows at the Star Theatre, Minerva Theatre and the Classic Theatre. Following a long gap after Sen's works, Dhirendra Nath Ganguly (a film enterpreneur/actor/director of Bengali Cinema) established Indo British Film Co, the first Bengali owned production company, in 1918. But, the first Bengali Feature film, Billwamangal, was produced in 1919, under the banner of Madan Theatre. The Madan Theatre production of Jamai Shashthi was the first Bengali motion picture with sound.

Cinema of West Bengal history

The contribution of Bengali film industry to Indian film is hugely significant.

The Bengali film industry has produced classics such as Nagarik, The Apu Trilogy, Jalsaghar, Devdas, Devi, etc. The Apu Trilogy is now frequently listed among the greatest films of all time.

The most well known Bengali actor to date has been Uttam Kumar; he and co-star Suchitra Sen were known as The Eternal Pair in the early 1950s. One of the most well known Bengali actresses was Sharmila Tagore, who debuted in Ray's The World of Apu, and became a major actress in Bengali cinema as well as Bollywood.

In the 1980s, the Bengal film industry went through a period of turmoil, with a shift to an approach more imitating the increasingly more popular Hindi films, along with a decline in the audience and critical appreciation. However, toward the end of the 90s, with a number of directors becoming increasingly well known, many popular and critically acclaimed movies were being produced.

The market for Bengali films has expanded to a 340-million-strong Bengali audience in Bangladesh,West Bengal, Tripura and Assam. The industry could truly flourish if films from this state had a proper distribution network. Whilst around 50 films are produced in West Bengal every year, on average only about 30 make it to the movie theatres.

Bangladeshi Film Industry

As of 2004, the Bangladeshi film industry produced approximately 100 movies. Only a handful of directors from Bangladesh have attained critical acclaim for their outstanding work.

Bangladesh has been officially submitting nominations for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 2003. Masud's Matir Moina (The Clay Bird) was the first film to be submitted, and it won a number of other international awards.