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Indian actor
Shekhar Chatterjee
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Born
| c. 1924
[1]
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Died
| 1990
[2]
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Occupation(s)
| Actor, director
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Years active
| 1950?1989
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Shekhar Chatterjee
(1924?1990) was an Indian actor and film director.
Career
Chatterjee was born in
Kolkata
in 1924. He began his career in the
Bengali theatre
in the 1950s. He was associated with a number of
leftist
theatre groups, including the
Communist Party
's
Indian People's Theatre Association
,
Utpal Dutt
's Little Theatre Group, and
Joan Littlewood
's
Theatre Workshop
, as well as his own group, Theatre Unit, which he formed in 1958.
[3]
As a stage actor he was well known for his
Shakespearean
roles and for playing Shardul Singh in Dutt's 1965 play
Kallol
.
[3]
His directorial work focused on works by German-language playwrights
Bertold Brecht
,
Friedrich Durrenmatt
,
Peter Handke
, and
Franz Xaver Kroetz
.
[3]
Chatterjee's Brecht productions were rarely adapted to a local setting, and while critics unanimously praised this approach as "authentic", his colleague Dutt attacked it for failing to communicate Brecht's political symbolism to an Indian audience.
[4]
Chatterjee was also active in
Bengali
, Indian and world cinema, having acted in nearly a hundred films by the time he was sixty.
[1]
Among his first credited roles was in
Agradoot
's 1955 film noir
Sabar Uparey
; he later had memorable roles in several of
Mrinal Sen
's films, including
Bhuvan Shome
,
Ek Adhuri Kahani
,
Chorus
, and
Mrigayaa
.
[3]
[1]
His biggest international role was that of
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
in
Richard Attenborough
's biographical epic
Gandhi
. Casting director
Dolly Thakore
recommended Chatterjee for the role after seeing him onstage in Calcutta and noting that he shared Suhrawardy's large stature.
[5]
In 1983, Chatterjee directed the film
Vasundhara
, which was awarded as best
Bengali film
at the
31st National Film Awards
. The
Directorate of Film Festivals
cited it for "its sincere attempt to depict the struggle against social injustice".
[1]
Filmography
As actor
As director
Year
|
Title
|
Notes
|
1983
|
Vasundhara
|
as Sekhar Chatterjee
|
As screenwriter
References
External links
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Bangladesh
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Personalities
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Dramas
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Auditoriums
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India
| Groups
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Personalities
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Dramas
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Learned societies
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Auditoriums
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See also
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