Ranjan Ghosh

Ranjan Ghosh
Born Calcutta, India
Occupation Screenwriter / Director
Years active 2009 - present

Ranjan K Ghosh (Bengali: রঞ্জন ঘোষ Rônjôn Ghosh) is a Bengali filmmaker based out of Kolkata, India. He rose to prominence by becoming the first and the only screenwriter, acclaimed director Aparna Sen has collaborated with so far in her illustrious career.[1] Ghosh made his screenwriting debut co-authoring Iti Mrinalini, the 2011 film that also marked the acclaimed director's return to Bengali cinema after more than a decade.

Ghosh has made his directorial debut in 2014 with the critically acclaimed Hrid Majharey, a Bengali feature film starring Abir Chatterjee and Raima Sen.[2][3] Inspired by certain iconic Shakespearean plays, this is the first film in the Bengali language based on the works of the Bard and is presented as a tribute on his 450th Birth Anniversary.[4][5]

Early life

Brought up in a Bengali family in a satellite township in West Bengal, Ranjan K Ghosh studied at St. Xavier's School, Durgapur and at BC Institution. Thereafter, he moved to Calcutta to take up Physics at Jadavpur University. Very soon he left his higher studies to become a mariner, and embarked on a career that would take him almost all around the world for the next four years. He holds a Degree in Nautical Sciences from The University of Mumbai. In 2007, Ranjan bid adieu to his sea-life and joined Mumbai based film school Whistling Woods International to study filmmaking. He graduated in 2009 with a major in screenwriting.

Career

While still in his film school, Ranjan worked as a script assistant on the National Film Award winning 2009 Bengali film Antaheen. He later assisted the director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury on the shoot of the same film.[6]

After graduating in 2009, Ghosh made his screenwriting debut co-authoring the story and screenplay of Iti Mrinalini, a 2011 Bengali film directed by Aparna Sen.[7] The screenplay was a professional assignment in the film school course syllabus. Interestingly, it was the first instance in Indian Screenwriting that any screenplay emerging from any Indian film institute was actually filmed. With this, Ranjan Ghosh went on to become Aparna Sen's first and only co-author till date.[8]

Considered a high-profile project, Iti Mrinalini - Aparna Sen's return to Bengali Cinema after a decade - also stars the director-actor along with her daughter Konkona Sen Sharma in the title role. Apart from co-writing the film, Ghosh assisted Aparna Sen in direction and on the production design. Reportedly, the entire memorabilia of the actress Mrinalini in the film has been designed and created by him, with some help from the art department.[9]

Post Iti Mrinalini, Ghosh collaborated with Prakash Jha, who is supposed to make his debut as a producer for Bengali films. The film is a loose adaptation of Jha's National Film Award winning 2003 Hindi film Gangaajal. The adapted story and screenplay has been penned by Ranjan. The yet untitled film is a comment on contemporary Bengal politics with the 1980 Bhagalpur blindings as the backdrop. Scheduled to go on floors in end 2010, the film has been facing delay owing to the stormy political scene in West Bengal.[1]

Ranjan Ghosh made his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed Abir Chatterjee-Raima Sen starrer Hrid Majharey in July, 2014.[10][11] The movie has earned a rare recommendation from the prestigious Film London in its list of world cinema based on Shakespearean plays.[12] In another major achievement, the film and its screenplay have been included in the UGC Literature Archive through the prestigious Shakespeare in Bengal project conducted by Jadavpur University.[13][14]

Hrid Majharey had created history by becoming the first Bengali film to be shot in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands after a gap of almost 33 years. It was shot in 2013 in the Archipelagos. The last time was in 1979 when veteran filmmaker Tapan Sinha partly shot his Children's adventure film Sabuj Dwiper Raja in Port Blair.[15][16][17][18]

Filmography

Notes

External links