Shekhar Chatterjee (1924–1990) was an Indian actor and film director.

Career

Chatterjee was born in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

in 1924. He began his career in the

Bengali theatre Bengali theatre primarily refers to theatre performed in the Bengali language. Bengali theatre is produced mainly in West Bengal, and in Bangladesh. The term may also refer to some Hindi theatres which are accepted by the Bengali people. Ben ...

in the 1950s. He was associated with a number of leftist theatre groups, including the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

Indian People's Theatre Association Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) is the oldest association of theatre-artists in India. IPTA was formed in 1943 during the British rule in India, and promoted themes related to the Indian freedom struggle. Its goal was to bring cultur ...

Utpal Dutt Utpal Dutta () (29 March 1929 – 19 August 1993) was an Indian actor, director, and writer-playwright. He was primarily an actor in Bengali theatre, where he became a pioneering figure in Modern Indian theatre, when he founded the "Little Th ...

's Little Theatre Group, and

Joan Littlewood Joan Maud Littlewood (6 October 1914 – 20 September 2002) was an English theatre director who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and is best known for her work in developing the Theatre Workshop. She has been called "The Mother of M ...

Theatre Workshop Theatre Workshop is a theatre group whose long-serving director was Joan Littlewood. Many actors of the 1950s and 1960s received their training and first exposure with the company, many of its productions were transferred to theatres in the West E ...

, as well as his own group, Theatre Unit, which he formed in 1958. As a stage actor he was well known for his

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

an roles and for playing Shardul Singh in Dutt's 1965 play ''Kallol''. His directorial work focused on works by German-language playwrights

Bertold Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

Friedrich Dürrenmatt Friedrich Dürrenmatt (; 5 January 1921 – 14 December 1990) was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant-g ...

Peter Handke Peter Handke (; born 6 December 1942) is an Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored t ...

, and

Franz Xaver Kroetz Franz Xaver Kroetz (; born 25 February 1946) is a German author, playwright, actor and film director. He achieved great success beginning in the early 1970s. ''Persistent'', '' Farmyard'', and ''Request Concert'', all written in 1971, are some o ...

. 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. Chatterjee was also active in

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

, Indian and world cinema, having acted in nearly a hundred films by the time he was sixty. Among his first credited roles was in

Agradoot Agradoot () was a group of Indian film technicians signing collectively as director, a phenomenon unique to Bengali cinema. The Agradoot core unit, formed in 1946, consisted initially of Bibhuti Laha (cameraman, 1915–1997), Jatin Datta (sound) ...

's 1955 film noir '' Sabar Uparey''; he later had memorable roles in several of

Mrinal Sen Mrinal Sen (''Beng.'' মৃণাল সেন; 14 May 1923 – 30 December 2018) was an Indian film director, and screenwriter known for his work primarily in Bengali, and few Hindi and Telugu language films. Regarded as one of the finest Ind ...

's films, including ''

Bhuvan Shome ''Bhuvan Shome'' is a 1969 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Mrinal Sen based on the story of Balai Chand Mukhopadhyay. The cast includes Utpal Dutt (Mr. Bhuvan Shome) and Suhasini Mulay (Gauri, a village belle). Sen based his film ...

'', '' Ek Adhuri Kahani'', '' Chorus'', and ''

Mrigayaa ''Mrigayaa'' () is a 1976 Indian historical drama film directed by Mrinal Sen and produced by K. Rajeshwara Rao. It is based on an Odia short story by Bhagbati Charan Panigrahi, called "Shikaar". The film portrayed the relationship between the B ...

''. His biggest international role was that of

Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy ( bn, হোসেন শহীদ সোহ্‌রাওয়ার্দী; ur, ; 8 September 18925 December 1963) was a Bengali barrister and politician. He served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1956 t ...

in Richard Attenborough's biographical epic ''

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

''. Casting director Dolly Thakore recommended Chatterjee for the role after seeing him onstage in Calcutta and noting that he shared Suhrawardy's large stature. In 1983, Chatterjee directed the film ''Vasundhara'', which was awarded as best Bengali film at the

31st National Film Awards The 31st National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1983. Ceremony took place in Jun ...

. The

Directorate of Film Festivals The Directorate of Film Festivals in India was an organisation that initiated and presented the International Film Festival of India, the National Film Awards and the Indian Panorama. Although the Directorate helped appoint members of the jury ...

cited it for "its sincere attempt to depict the struggle against social injustice".

Filmography

As actor

As director

As screenwriter

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chatterjee, Shekhar 1920s births 1990 deaths 20th-century Indian male actors Bengali male actors Bengali theatre personalities Film directors from Kolkata Indian male film actors Indian male stage actors Indian People's Theatre Association people Indian theatre directors Male actors from Kolkata Male actors in Bengali cinema Male actors in Hindi cinema Male Shakespearean actors