Sangeet Mela and Sangeet Samman – Honouring the talent of Bengal

It is well-known that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is a connoisseur of the arts – be it music, dance, art or anything else.

Under her initiative, every year, the Trinamool Congress Government has been organising Bangla Sangeet Mela successfully. The festival has turned into one of the foremost cultural extravaganzas of the State.

After taking over as the Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee also started the tradition of honouring the musical talent of Bengal with Sangeet Samman and Sangeet Mahasamman awards.

At the last festival, held from December 23 to 30, 2017 across nine venues, more than 3,000 artistes performed. Veteran artistes from across Bengal, including thousands of folk artistes participated.

The Sangeet Mela is not only a musical treat but also a platform for new and upcoming artistes to showcase their talents.

Best of Bengali television world honoured at Tele Academy Awards

The Tele-Academy 2015-16 organised by the West Bengal Tele Academy of the State Government was organised today Nazrul Mancha at 5 PM.

West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee felicitated actors and technicians working in the television industry for their outstanding performances through their career as well as in the last year.

“We are really honoured and blessed to be able to felicitate the talent of TV industry. Very talented people are being honoured here today for their performances,” she said.

“There was a time when TV was called an idiot box. But now it is a huge industry, generating livelihood for people,” the CM added.

The West Bengal Tele Academy Awards 2016 covers the entire gamut of Film and TV, rewarding excellence in production, programming, photography and technology, among others. The awards have been constituted as a token of respect and gratitude to the entire Film and TV industry in West Bengal.

In 2014, the inaugural year of the Tele Akademi Awards, actors Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Monoj Mitra, Sabitri Chattopadhyay and Madhabi Mukhopadhyay were presented with Lifetime Achievement Awards.

The Trinamool Government had introduced Banga Sammanana in the year 2011 for notable contribution to the state; the Government has also been honouring distinguished artists from the field of music with Sangeet Samman, and those associated with sports with the Khel Samman.

“We believe “Telly”wood is as glamorous as Tollywood, Bollywood and Hollywood,” WB CM said while wishing the members of the Bengali television fraternity.

WB CM felicitates cine artists with Mahanayak Samman

West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee today gave away the annual Mahanayak Samman awards at Nazrul Mancha to felicitate the actors and technicians of the Bengali film industry.

“It is our honour to felicitate the veterans. We instituted Banga Bibhushan awards, Sangeet Samman, Tele Samman to felicitate our cultural icons,” WB CM said.

The awards were instituted in the year 2012, on the initiative of the Chief, in the memory of the legendary actor Mahanayak Uttam Kumar.

Veteran actors Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Rituparna Sengupta were conferred Mahanayak and Mahanayika Samman. Lifetime achievement awards were conferred on veterans Paran Bandyopadhyay, Anjan Dutta, Sandhya Roy, Chiranjeet Chakraborty, director Utpalendu Chakraborty.

Special awards were given to actors Debalina Roy, Rajatabha Dutta, Dulal Sarkar, Dulal Lahiri, Rahul Bandyopadhyay, Abhishek Chatterjee, Tanushree Chakraborty, Sreelekha Mitra, Biswanath Basu.

Composer Shantanu Moitra was conferred a special award along with director Shiboprosad Mukhopadhyay, cinematographers Gopi Bhagat and Sudip Chattopadhyay. Art director Indranil Ghosh was also felicitated on the occasion.

Calling Uttam Kumar a nostalgia, WB CM prided the fact that Bengal is the cultural capital of the world. “Culture unites everyone. No one can create a rift in the world of art,” she said.

WB CM said she was confident one day Tollywood will give tough competition to Hollywood.