21 July:Eminent Film Director Shri Tapan Sinha has been selected for the Dada saheb Phalke Award for the year 2006. The award is given by the Government of India for outstanding contribution in the field of Indian Cinema. The Award carries a cash price of Rs.Ten lakhs, a Swaran Kamal and a Shawl.
Shri Tapan Sinha’s work has won 19 National Film Awards in various categories apart from laurels in international film festivals like those in Berlin, Venice, London, Moscow, San Francisco and Locarno. He began his film career as a sound engineer in Kolkata’s New Theatre in 1946.. In 1950, he got the opportunity of working a Pinewood Studios in the UK where he spent two years. On returning to India, he turned his attention to film directing, making films in Bengali, Hindi and also Oriya. He made three films based on Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s works: Kabuliwala, Khudito Pashan and Atithi. Shri Sinha’s cinematic landscape traverses a journey that began with Ankush (1954) and highlighted by Upahar (1955), Tonsil (1956), Louhakapat (1957), Kalomati (1957), Hansuli Banker Upakatha (1962), Sagina Mahato (1970), Banchharamer Bagan (1980), Adalat O Ekti Meye (1982), Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1991) and Shatabdir Kanya (2001).
Tapan Sinha’s cinematic works are amazingly down-to-earth depiction of the struggles of the common man. His reputation as an uncompromising filmmaker, a celluloid iconoclast, puts him in a class of his own.
The Government of India had recently conferred on him the “One Time Award for Life Time Achievement to Commemorate the 60th anniversary of India’s Independence.
The Committee consisting of eminent film personalities Shri Shyam Benegal , Shri Gautam Ghosh, Dr. A.Nageshwar Rao, Smt. Sharmila Tagore and renowned Flute Player Shri Hari Prasad Chaurasia made the recommendation to the Government.