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Amlan Datta (1971-present)

Amlan Datta
(1971-present)

Photo credit: Ratan Paul

Amlan Datta began his artistic journey as a painter and worked as a commercial designer to support his studies. He took to photography at the age of 18, when his mother gifted him with a Nikkormat camera.Amlan completed his secondary education from Baranagar Ramkrishna Mission Ashrama High School before securing a B.SC degree from St Xavier's College. Being a chemistry honors student, Amlan’s love for photography grew stronger as he enjoyed exploring the dark room techniques. Soon he found the ...

Deep Focus

    • Bom/One Day Ahead of Democracy
    This 117 minute-long documentary, also ...

Filmography
    • Everything Remains – a film on Chitpur Road (1998)
    • Bom/One Day Ahead of Democracy (2011)
Awards
    • At the 59th Indian National Film Awards, Datta’s Bom/One Day Ahead of Democracy won the silver lotus in the Best Ethnographic Film category.
    • It also received a Special Mention Award at the Mumbai International Film Fest in 2012.
    • It bagged the Cinema Of Resistance Award at SIGNS Kerala in 2012 and a special prize of International Jury at Estonia’s 26th Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival.
    • As a producer for .In for motion (2008), he 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”.
    • As a producer of Bhultir Khero / Chronicle of an Amnesiac (2007), he won Rajat Kamal (Special Jury Award) at the 55th Indian National Film Awards for “its brilliant evocation of Kolkata”.
Did You Know?

Amlan has been involved in social developmental work in Himachal Pradesh for a long time and has been a staunch campaigner for legalization of cannabis in India. He is also a co-founder of an agritech startup engaged in bio-organic inputs for chemical-free agriculture. Supported by start Up India Seed Fund and BIRAC IKP, the company aims to contribute towards a sustainable future.