List of people from Kolkata

The Socio-Cultural Capital and Aesthetic Conscience of India

Kolkata has been regarded since ages as the cultural capital of India. It is famous for the book-fairs every winter. The International Book Fair held by the Publishers and Booksellers Guild every year is the biggest fair in Kolkata, one of the biggest festivals in Kolkata, and the only truly secular one. People from every walk of life converge on the Fair Grounds to buy books, eat food and celebrate the spirit of books. It is a cultural fiesta.

Observers, Social Reformers and Commentators

Kolkata was also home to the Noble Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore, the Hindu social reformers Raja Ram Mohun Roy (founder of the Brahmo Samaj), Keshub Chunder Sen, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, David Hare (of Calcutta), Alexander Duff, Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, William Carey and Mutty Lal Seal. It has produced some great social critics, commentators on culture, religion, philosophy and scholars and writers (see Bengali language) like Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bibhutibhushan_Bandopadhyay, Amritalal Basu, Dinabandhu Mitra, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Dhan Gopal Mukerji, Syed Mustafa Ali, Saradindu Bandyopadhyay, Pramath Chowdhury, Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, (linguist) Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay, (historians) Jadunath Sircar and Romesh Chunder Majumdar, (philosophers and presidents) Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, (novelists) Samaresh Majumdar, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Bimal Mitra, Dibyendu Palit, Purnendu Pattrea, Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, Rajashekhar Basu, Premendra Mitra, Syed Mustafa Siraj, Mahasweta Devi, Anita Desai, Sanjeeb Chattopadhyay, Bimal Kar, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Amitav Ghosh, Amit Chaudhuri, Ashapurna Devi, (poets) Buddhadev Bose, Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Jibanananda Das, Nirendranath Chakraborty, Annada Shankar Ray and Leela Majumdar. Calcutta was the birth place of the great English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray and noted litterateurs like Vikram Seth, Bharati Mukherjee, Raj Kamal Jha, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Jayabroto Chatterjee, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Lali Chatterjee, Suketu Mehta, Nalinaksha Bhattacharyya, Sasthi Brata, and for some time, the home of German Nobel laureate Günter Grass. The renowned genetic scientist and Marxist commentator on society, culture and biology J.B.S. Haldane, spent his last days in his adopted homeland, in Kolkata.

Nobel laureates

Most Nobel laureates of India have been associated with Kolkata at some point of time. The city has produced five Nobel Prize laureates so far. They are:

Sir Ronald Ross (1902 Medicine)
Rabindranath Tagore (1913 Literature)
Sir C.V. Raman (1930 Physics)
Mother Teresa (1979 Peace)
Amartya Sen (1998 Economics)

Ramon Magsaysay Award Winners (incomplete list)

Cinema, Theatre and other Performing Arts

Cinema

The late film director Satyajit Ray, who won the Special Oscar for Lifetime Achievement or the Academy Honorary Award in 1992 lived in Kolkata and was defined by his capturing of the Bengali ethos on cinema. Considered by many film makers, Western and Eastern alike, to be among the four greatest directors of film history, he was lauded by greats like Kurosawa. Indeed, the Japanese legend of film said that to have not seen Ray's films was to have never seen the light of the moon and the sun.

In fact the tradition of non-commercial, artistic, impressionistic cinema is vogue in the cinema of Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak (d.1977), Buddhadev Dasgupta, Goutam Ghose, Aparna Sen, Nabyendu Chatterjee among others.

In the domain of commercial or mainstream cinema, actors and thespian turned actors like Dhirendranath Ganguly, Devika Rani Roerich, Utpal Dutt, Pramathesh Barua, Pahari Sanyal, Robi Ghosh, Kali Bandyopadyay, Kanan Devi, Suchitra Sen, Uttam Kumar, Victor Banerjee , Dhritiman Chaterji, and Soumitra Chatterjee have won international acclaim.

Dhritiman began his acting career in Satyajit Ray's Pratidwandi (The Adversary) back in 1971, a film that still has a cult following. He's also worked with filmmakers like Mrinal Sen, Aparna Sen (36 Chowringhee Lane) and many of the younger directors in Kolkata. Never a part of mainstream "Tollywood", he's made an astonishingly small number of films. In recent years he's wandered to assignments with filmmakers as diverse as Jane Campion and the hugely successful Mumbai director Sanjay Leela Bhansali. He has also made a number of documentaries and pursued a successful career in advertising and marketing.

The Bollywood cinema superstar Amitabh Bachchan started his career as a clerk for an insurance company in Kolkata. Bollywood action hero Mithun Chakraborty started his career in a non-commercial Bengali film directed by Mrinal Sen.

Theatre

Despite its decline from the pre-eminent position of the cultural capital of India in recent times, it still retains a strong tradition in cinema and theatre. Renowned thespians include Utpal Dutt, Sambhu Mitra, Tripti Mitra, Rudra Prasad Sengupta, Shaonli Mitra, Usha Ganguli, Ashok Mukhopadhyay among others. Kolkata is the capital of the Hindi theatre stage in India and home to the nationally renowned theatre groups Rangakarmee, Padatik, Nandipaat Ajantrik and Nandikar. Kolkata is host to several acclaimed mime theatre groups and mime artists, like Jogesh Dutt among others.

The Kolkata stage has time and again been inspired and enriched by the translated and transcreated oeuvres of William Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Guy de Maupassant, T. S. Eliot, Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Mann, Alexander Pushkin, Maxim Gorky, Maurice Maeterlinck, Jean Paul Sartre, Sean O'Casey, J.M. Synge, Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter, Ernest Hemingway, Lorraine Hansberry, Girish Karnad and Chinua Achebe.

Music

Kolkata has produced talented vocal artists like Gaharjaan, Angurobala Dasi, Indubala Dasi, Dwijendra Lal Roy, Acharya K. C. Dey - also known as Kana Kesto, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Kanan Devi, Feroza Begum, Kanika Bandyopadhyay, Suchitra Mitra, Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Manna Dey, Geetashree Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Debabrata Biswas, Shyama Chattopadhyay, Krishna Chattopadhyay, Sarbani Sen, Robin Bandyopadhyay, Ramkumar Chattopadhyay and son Shreekumar, Arati Mukhopadhyay, Anjali Mukhopadhyay, Begum Akhtar, Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty, Usha Uthup, Indrani Sen, Haimanti Shukla, Shreekanta Acharya, Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta, Suman Chatterjee, Anjan Dutt, Nachiketa, Bengali bands Moiner Ghoraguli, Chandrabindoo, Cactus, Crosswindz and Bhoomi. The Bombay-based (or Bollywood) film musicians Bappi Lahiri, Kumar Sanu, Abhijeet and Babul Supriyo started their careers in Calcutta.

Globally acclaimed instrumental virtuosos in Hindustani classical music like Dhruv Tara Joshi, Abdul Karim Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ananda Shankar, Bismillah Khan, Enayet Khan and son Vilayat Khan, Imdaad Khan, Imaraat Khan, Wahid Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Asifuddin Dagar, Amjad Ali Khan, Budhaditya Mukhopadhyay, Shahid Pervez, Grammy Awardee Bikram Ghosh, Tanmoy Bose, Louis Banks among others hail from Kolkata. The Dover Lane Music Conference held every September celebrates the tradition of Indian Classical music. It is also said that Kolkata has the finest connoisseurs of Western classical music in India.

Among the styles and traditions of vocal music in vogue in Kolkata are Nidhu Babur Toppa, Mujraah, Kheyaal, Kavi Gaan, Jatra Gaan, Rabindra Sangeet, Carnatic, Hindustani, Atulprasadi, Shyama Sangeet, Adhunik, Nazrul Geeti, Lok Geeti, Ghazals, Bhakti Geet, Jeebonmukhi, Pop, IndiPop, Rock and Roll, Santhal Lok Sangeet and Hindi film music .

Dance

Some of the most beautiful dance themes are based on the eternal songs, and song and dance based plays of Tagore like Chandalika, The Country of Cards (Tasher Desh), Red Oleanders (Rakta Karabi) among others. Prominent dancers and dance troupes of the city include late Uday Shankar and Amala Shankar, Indrani Rahaman, Manjushree Chaki Sircar, Ranjabati Sircar, Tanushree Shankar and group, Mamata Shankar Ballet Troupe, Madhuboni Chattopadhyay, Italian born Ileana Citaristi, American born Leela Samson, Sushmita Bandopadhyay, Gaudiya Nritya, Odissi Kala Kendra, Mallhar, Anurekha Ghosh and Company, The Nupur Dance Academy, Padatik Dance Centre, Durga Prasdee Sangeet Vidyalaya among others.

The different dance schools prevalent in Kolkata are Rabindra Nritya Natya, Adhunik, Bharatnatyam, Manipuri, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Santhal Folk Dance, among others.

Magic and Astrology

Kolkata is the magic capital of India and has produced internationally famous magicians and performers including P.C. Sorcar, P.C. Sorcar Jr., Manick Sorcar, and P.C. Sorcar Young. K Lal, Prince Seal and numerous nationally and internationally acclaimed astrologers. Kolkata hosts the headquarters of the All India Magic Circle.

Artists

Artists, painters and sculptors like those of the Tagore family (Gaganendranath, Samarendranath, Sunayani Devi, Rabindranath, Rathindranath), Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy, Ganesh Pyne, Bikash Bhattacharya, Paritosh Sen, Paresh Maity, Thankappan Kutty, Chintamoni Kar, Rathin Mitra and M.F. Husain have at some time in their careers, been associated with Kolkata. The Bengal School of Art, and Kalighat Pat are internationally acclaimed schools of Art.

Scientists

Scientific greats of Kolkata include, in approximately chronogical order, the multifaceted geniuses W.B. O'Slaughnessy, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, Sir Prafulla Chandra Roy, the physicists Meghnad Saha, Satyendra Nath Bose, statistician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, and genetic scientist Ananda Mohan Chakraborty. The first in-vitro fertilization (to produce test tube baby "Durga") in India (and second in the world) was performed by city doctor Dr. Subhash Mukhopadhyay on October 3, 1978.