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Anirban Datta
Anirban Datta
Currently the head of the Direction & Screenplay Writing department of Satyajjit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), Anirban Datta hails from a family with academic interests. He was born in Kolkata’s Baranagar. His father, Asoke Kumar Datta, was one of India’s first generation computer scientists. His mother, Shubhra Datta, was a mathematician. Datta was always interested in writing. He chose to give up pursuing physics to become a full-time screenwriter. During that period, he worked for several regional and national projects as a professional script and screenwriter. He did his post graduate diploma in cinema from SRFTI’s Direction and ...
Deep Focus
Filmography
- Here is my Nocturne (2004)
- Tetris (2006)
- Bhultir Khero / Chronicle of an Amnesiac (2007)
- .In for motion (2008)
- BOM/ One Day Ahead of Democracy (as producer) (2011)
- Wasted (2012)
- Kalikshetra (2018)
Awards
- Bhultir Khero / Chronicle of an Amnesiac (2007), a film commissioned by NHK Japan (TV2) a won Rajat Kamal (Spacial Jury Award) at the 55th Indian National Film Awards for “its brilliant evocation of Kolkata”. The citation mentioned that the film “brings out sights and sounds, smells and stories, myths and memories in a manner that is realistic and yet magical”. It also won the John Abraham National Award for Best Documentary at SIGNS’07 in Trivandrum.
- .in for motion (2008) won a Rajat Kamal for Best Film on Environment/Conservation/Preservation and Best Agricultural Film at the 57th National Film Awards for “portraying the changing scenario in the urban environment where burgeoning and mindless development is swallowing agricultural lands”.
- .in for motion won Special Jury Award at Trivandrum’s IDSFFK.
- BOM/ One Day Ahead of Democracy, a film produced by Datta, won a Rajat Kamal at the 59th National Film Awards. Datta won a Rajat Kamal as the producer.
- BOM won John Abraham National Award in Cinema of Resistance category. This award was given in memory of legendary Malayali filmmaker John Abraham.
- BOM also won a special mention at MIFF, Mumbai.
- Wasted received won the John Abraham National Award in the category of Special Jury Award. It was given in SIGNS festival organised by FFSI southern chapter.
Did You Know?
Parallel to his filmmaking, Datta is also a practicing visual artist. He is one of the founder members of the artists’ collective called Kolkata Performers Independent (Pi). He had collective shows with galleries like Birla Academy of Fine Arts, Studio 21 Kolkata, Open Show International (Pune chapter), Delhi’s Khoj International Artists’ Collaborative, Delhi and Bhubaneswar’s Vasudha Art Fair. As part of Pi, he is one of the initiators of Kolkata International Performance Art Festival (KIPAF) from its inception in 2013. He has been engaging with performance documentation for over a decade and has developed his own language and theory around it. He has been leading the documentation team for KIPAF for the last five editions.
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