Tapan Sinha

Biography

Tapan Sinha (2 October 1924 – 15 January 2009) was one of the most prominent Indian film directors of his time who made more than 40 feature films in Bengali, Hindi and Oriya in a career spanning nearly half a century. A contemporary of West Bengal's cinema icons - Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen - Sinha was an equally powerful storyteller who, like his favourite novelist, Charles Dickens, won a large and appreciative audience by dealing with the problems that confront ordinary people. Born in Kolkata, Sinha was the fifth child of Tridibesh and Pramila Sinha. He attended schools in Bhagalpur and Bankura. As a student at Patna University, Bihar, Sinha responded sympathetically to Mahatma Gandhi's Quit Indiamovement, launched against the British in 1942. However, when he moved to Kolkata University, where he was studying for an MSc in physics, he fell under the spell of British and American film-makers, particularly John Ford, Billy Wilder, Frank Capra and Carol Reed. He later claimed that it was Jack Conway's 1935 version of Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities that motivated him to become a film-maker. After gaining his master's in 1946, Sinha joined the New Theatr…

Directed

1. Death of a Doctor (1990) — Director
2. Kabuliwala (1957) — Director
3. Galpo Holeo Satti (1966) — Director
4. Wheel Chair (1994) — Director
5. The Desolate Beach (1963) — Director
6. Hatey Bazarey (1967) — Director
7. Sagina Mahato (1971) — Director
8. The Prisoner of Jhind (1961) — Director
9. The Hungry Stones (1960) — Director
10. The Garden of Bancharam (1980) — Director
11. The Magic Pearl (2000) — Director
12. Sagina (1974) — Director
13. Man and Woman (1984) — Director
14. Today's Robin Hood (1988) — Director
15. The White Elephant (1977) — Director
16. Daughters of This Century (2001) — Director
17. Zindagi Zindagi (1972) — Director
18. Atithi (1965) — Director
19. Apanjan (1968) — Director
20. Upahar (1955) — Director
21. Hansuli Banker Upakatha (1962) — Director
22. Didi (1989) — Director
23. A Burnt House (1964) — Director
24. Strange Tale of a Strange Village (1998) — Director
25. Sabuj Dwiper Raja (1979) — Director
26. Ascending (1964) — Director
27. The Law and a Lady (1982) — Director
28. Iron Door (1958) — Director
29. Crossing the Darkness (1973) — Director
30. Kalamati (1958) — Director
31. Ankush (1954) — Director
32. Aamar Desh (1962) — Director
33. Tonsil (1956) — Director
34. Terror (1986) — Director
35. Baidurya Rahasya (1985) — Director
36. Disappearance (1991) — Director
37. Khaniker Atithi (1959) — Director
38. Ekhonee (1971) — Director
39. Harmonium (1976) — Director
40. Ek Je Chhilo Desh (1977) — Director

Also appeared in

1. Filmmaker for freedom (1994) — Archival footage