Tapan Sinha

Tapan Sinha (), (2 October 1924 – 15 January 2009) was a Indian film director. He was arguably the most uncompromising filmmaker outside the orbit of Parallel Cinema.

Personal life and background

Sinha was born in Kolkata, . He studied physics at the University of Patna and later earned an MSc at the University of Calcutta.

He married Indian actress Arundhati Devi. Their son is Indian scientist Professor, Anindya Sinha. On 15 January 2009, he died of pneumonia and septicaemia.

Career

Tapan Sinha went to London in 1950s to learn film-making. On reaching London, he contacted CryHearsth, Manager of Pinewood Studios. Through his help, he managed to obtain his first assignment. He got to work in director Charles Cryton's unit as a Sound Engineer. Cryton, who made some British comedies like Lavender Hill Mob etc. was then working for a film called The Hunted.

Though he was primarily based in the Bengali film industry, Sinha also made films in different languages like Hindi and Oriya.

His films have also won laurels in International Film Festivals of Berlin, Venice, London, Moscow, San Francisco, Locarno, Cork Festival in Ireland, Kampuchea and Seoul. He has also served as a member of the jury in film festivals at Tashkent and San Francisco among others.

Charles Dickens's novel, A Tale of Two Cities and the cinematic adaptation featuring Ronald Colman inspired Sinha to get involved in film-making. Sinha started as a sound...
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