July 24, 2012
Chief Minister gives away Uttam Kumar Award 2012 to film personalities, announces month pension for five veteran technicians
Chief Minister gives away Uttam Kumar Award 2012 to film personalities, announces month pension for five veteran technicians
West Bengal State Government felicitated personalities from the cinema fraternity on the occasion of death anniversary of Mahanayak Uttam Kumar. The actor, Uttam Kumar who literary came to the world of cinema by chance, an enigma who had left his mark in million hearts with his impeccable style and acting skills.
`At the outset I extend a warm welcome to everybody and express my thanks for making it today on this occasion inspite of your busy schedules. I am happy that today we could honour the personalities who have entertained us for decades. I am proud to be here. Please to tell us your difficulties as we will try to solve them and do whatever we can`, said Chief Minister. In her own special style the Chief Minister adding that special touch of warmth walked up to the veteran Dipti Roy who was unable to come upto the podium due to old age and gave her the award.
The evening rolled with a chorus `Bisho Pita Tumi`, a prayer performed by a group of singers. An audio and visual tribute was paid to the actor having collage of clippings from his cinema with ever classic songs in the background. Apart from that a documentary film was played narrating the history of the Technician Studio at Tollygunge.
Uttam Kumar who suffered a major heart attack on the sets of Bengali film `Ogo Bodhu Shundori` breathed his last on this day in 1980. His death not only saddened the cinema fraternity but left million of his admirers in a shock. In his tribute to the actor after his demise in 1980 noted film director Satyajit Ray had said that Uttam Kumar was am actor who did so many things which was not told or explained and are called `details` which makes film comprehensive. Satyajit Ray also said that romantic pairs such as Uttam-Suchitra are not only rare in Bollywood but even in the Hollywood. The enigma can be experienced still today with the cinema halls run full house when they show an Uttam Kumar starter. The television channels diligently observe Uttam Kumar week and play the classics.
The awards were given in various categories-
Lifetime Achievement
Soumitra Chatterjee, Supriya Devi Sabitri, Chattopadhyay
Mahanayak Award 2012
Mithun Chakraborty
Special Film Award (Director & Actress)
Aparna Sen
Special Film Award
Special Award (Actress): Madhabi Mukhopadhyay ,Anjana Bhowmik, Sumita Sanyal,Sandhya Roy,Dipti Roy,Sabita Basu,Lalita Chatterjee,Lili Chakraborty, Mousumi Chattopadhyay, Debashree Roy, Shatabdi Roy, Rituparna Sengupta, Indrani Halder.
Special Award (Actor): Haradhan Bandyopadhyay, Biswajit Chattopadhyay, Nirmal Kumar, Ranjit Mallick, Dipankar De, Santu Mukherjee, Chiranjit Chakraborty, Prasenjit Chatterjee, Tapas Paul
Director: Arabinda Mukhopadhyay, Goutam Ghosh, Biresh Chattopadhyay, Prabhat Roy
Music Director :Ajoy Das, Mrinal Bandyopadhyay,Rabindra Jain, Abhijit Bandyopadhyay,Anal Chattapadhyay,Bappi Lahiri, Debajyoti Mishra, Jit Ganguli
Cameraman : Ramananda Sengupta, Soumendu Roy, Kanai De, Shakti Banerjee
Story & Script Writer: Shaktipada Rajguru, Prafulla Roy,
Art Director :Kartik Basu
Chief Minister Ms. Banerjee paid her tributes to Uttam Kumar and wrote, ` 24th July, 1980 is the day when Mahanayak Uttam Kumar left for heavenly abode leaving behind tearful eyes of millions of his fans comprising of young and old. Even though he is not present amongst us, his ever-smiling face, charismatic personality and above all, his artistic skills of a great actor in innumerable roles, continue to remain alive in our memory.
Uttam Kumar was a great legend in the Tollywood and was also popular in Bollywood. His mesmerizing acting made him an icon among the students and all generations. It is an irony that his talent was not recognized during his life-time and even after death, his physical remains did not receive any official honour by the previous Government. It is no doubt a pain in the hearts of people of West Bengal and it is also a long-cherished wish to honour his talent in an appropriate manner. Even not being in government, we used to pay tribute to his great talent. Since last year, we have committed ourselves to offer our heart-felt honour to all important personalities who made an imprint in social, cultural and literary fields.
Keeping the sentiments and wishes attached to Mahanayak, our Government has decided to commemorate his death anniversary by introducing a set of prestigious film awards after his name`.
Adding her personal touch Ms. Banerjee announced 5,000 rupees monthly pension for Kanai Dey, Dipti Roy, Ajay Das, Anal Chatterjee Kartik Basu. `I reiterate that please don`t hesitate to share your problems with me as I will be more than delighted if I can be of some help to you`, added Ms. Banerjee.
On this occasion the special issue of the Bengali magazine Basumati dedicated to Uttam Kumar was rel,aesed. The magazine, Bengal's oldest dailies over 120-year-old state-owned Basumati Corporation Ltd. Basumati Corporation Ltd, which was re-launched with an initiative of Chief started as a publishing house in 1881.
The evening came to an end with rendering songs from classics of Uttam Kumar.
