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Ranjan Palit
Ranjan Palit
A diploma holder from Film and Television Institute of India, Ranjan has been one of the most important cinematographers of contemporary India. He has shot over 100 documentaries, 20 feature films, and numerous commercials for screen and television. A cinematographer, director and producer, Ranjan has won four national and several international awards, and been on many international festival juries. He has been conducting master classes on cinematography and documentary filmmaking. Over the years, he has been part of some iconic works and documentaries such as Anand Patwardhan's Bombay: Our City, Manjira Dutta's Babulal Bhuiyan Ki Qurbani, Reena Mohan's Kamlabai,? ...
Deep Focus
Filmography
- Bhiwandi (1981)
- Voices of Baliapal (1988)
- A Magic Mystic Marketplace (1996)
- Forever Young (2008)
- In Camera - Diaries of a Documentary Cameraman (2010)
- D'Cruz and Me (2018)
Awards
- His Voices of Baliapal, which he co-directed with Vasudha Joshi, won the Best Film on Social Issues at the 36th National Awards in 1988 for "the meticulousness of its investigation and the clarity and conviction with which it carries the story of the non-violent resistance of the people of Baliapal against the establishing of a missile testing range of their rich and fertile lands".
- At the 46th National Awards given to the best of Indian cinema in 1998, Ranjan won the Best Cinematography award for Sanjay Kak's In The Forest hangs A Bridge. His Rajat Kamal was given for "his perception of images to define a style that illustrates the harmony in the film".
- Ranjan won a Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus) at the 51st National Award for Best Cinematography. The award for the best of Indian cinema in 2003 was given for "a cinematic observation of myriad shades of humanity and breathtaking chiaroscuro of light and shade" in Arvind Sinha's Kaya Poochhe Maya Se.
- He won a Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus) at the 57th National Award for Best Narration/Voiceover he won in 2009 for In Camera - Diaries of a Documentary Cameraman. The award was given "for his natural flow and engaging narration of a well-told story".
- In 2015, Ranjan returned all the four awards. In his statement, he said: "My empathy lies with agitating students of FTII where I was a student. For months, the students singlehandedly stood against saffronization of education and rising fascism of the Modi government. FTII students were among the first to protest and my solidarity is with them".
Did You Know?
Ranjan directed his first feature titled Lord of the Orphans in 2020. It is a story of a family (the Palit family) reeling under a hundred year old curse. It is a unique biopic, a sort of auto-biopic, where Ranjan reminisced about five generations of his family, his relationship with his parents, his first wife and his journey as a filmmaker and cinematographer.