July 24, 2014
Golden era of Bengali cinema will return: WB CM on the occasion of Mahanayak Samman 2014
West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjeetoday gave away the annual Mahanayak Uttam Kumar Samman at Nazrul Mancha tofelicitate the actors and technicians of the Bengali film industry. The awardswere instituted in the year 2012, on the initiative of the Chief, in the memoryof the legendary actor Mahanayak Uttam Kumar.
Veteran actor Mousumi Chatterjee andBengali film star Dev were the recipients of this year`s Mahanayak Samman.
Special Film Awards were presented to ArindamSil, Hiran Chatterjee, Abir Chatterjee, Indranil Sengupta, Ankush Hazra, RitwikChakraborty, Kharaj Mukherjee, Rudranil Ghosh, Mimi Chakraborty,SayantikaBanerjee, Paoli Dam, Nusrat Jahan, Sreela Majumdar and Anuradha Roy.
Moonmoon Sen, Chiranjeet Chakraborty,Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Mamata Shankar and Debashree Roy were feted withLifetime Achievement Awards.
Veteran playback artiste Kumar Sanu wasfelicitated with Lifetime Achievement Award for Music ,while Special FilmAwards (Music) were presented to ShibajiChattopadhyay, Arundhati Home Chowdhuryand Adhir Chatterjee.
Special Film awards for cinematography weregiven to Sirsha Roy and Shoumik Haldar while that of Editing was given toBodhaditya Banerjee and Debkanta Chakraborty. Surinder Films received theSpecial Film award for the best Producer.
Dipankar Chaki and Goutam Nag were awardedfor sound recording while Azad Ahmed received the award for makeup. The awardfor art direction was given to Tanmoy Chakroborty and Goutam Bose while that forcostume went to Sabarni Das.
Special film awards for Direction werebestowed Swapan Saha, Kamaleshwar Mukherjee and Prodipto Bhattacharyya.
Excerptsfrom the Chief Minister`s speech on the occasion:
We have gathered here today to pay respectsto Mahanayak Uttam Kumar. We are honoured to have been able to confer theseawards on you. Talent cannot be measured by money. It can only be measured bylove and affection. When Uttam Kumar passed away, some people thought Bengalicinema will be over. But new talent has emerged. The golden era ofUttam-Suchitra in Bengali cinema can never be forgotten.
Being able to honour you is an honour forBengal. Thanks to you, Bengal is globally recognised. Bengali film industry hasa global reckoning. The golden era of Bengali film and television industry willreturn. I firmly believe this. 24th July is an emotional occasion for us. It isa day filled with nostalgia. Our past will show us the way for future. We wantto honour talent in Bengal. We want the unknown heroes in Bengal to come intolimelight.
Wehave identified land for new film cities in Uttarpara and Dabgram. A TV studiois coming up at Baruipur. Bengal is the gateway to North East, Nepal, Bhutan,Bangladesh. Bengal will be transformed into BiswaBangla.
