Tota Roy Chowdhury is an Indian actor and martial artist based 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 ...

. He predominantly appears 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 ...

and

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

cinema. His notable roles include

Feluda Feluda, or Prodosh Chandra Mitra itter'', is a fictional detective, Private investigator created by famous Indian director and writer Satyajit Ray. Feluda resides at 21 Rajani Sen Road, Ballygunge, Calcutta, West Bengal. Feluda first made his ap ...

in the web TV series

Feluda Pherot Feluda, or Prodosh Chandra Mitra itter'', is a fictional detective, Private investigator created by famous Indian director and writer Satyajit Ray. Feluda resides at 21 Rajani Sen Road, Ballygunge, Calcutta, West Bengal. Feluda first made his a ...

based on

Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of fil ...

series. He made his film debut with

Prabhat Roy Prabhat Roy ( bn, প্রভাত রায়; born 1946 in Jamshedpore) is a former Indian director who is known for his work in Bengali cinema. He received several awards including two National Awards and BFJA Awards Bengal Film Journali ...

National Award The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorate ...

winning Bengali film '' Lathi'' (1996). His breakthrough role came with

Rituparno Ghosh Rituparno Ghosh (31 August 1963 – 30 May 2013) was an Indian film director, actor, writer and lyricist. After pursuing a degree in economics, he started his career as a creative artist at an advertising agency. He received recognition for his ...

winning Bengali film '' Chokher Bali'' (2003).

Career

Early career

During his second year in college, he made up his mind to join the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

and was preparing for the CDS exams when fate intervened and he was asked by the director

to play a small role in his film. That one film brought other offers and soon he decided to become a professional actor. After starring in a few commercially successful films, he was spotted by director

and cast opposite

Nandita Das Nandita Das (born 7 November 1969) is an Indian actress and director. She has acted in over 40 feature films in ten different languages. Das appeared in the films ''Fire'' (1996), ''Earth'' (1998), '' Bawandar'' (2000), '' Kannathil Muthamittal' ...

in his film

Shubho Mahurat ''Shubho Mahurat'' (2003) is an Indian Bengali detective mystery film directed by Rituparno Ghosh. The film is based on Agatha Christie's 1962 Miss Marple detective novel ''The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side''. It won two National Film awar ...

Breakthrough

Chowdhury was cast again opposite

Aishwarya Rai Aishwarya Rai Bachchan ( Rai; born 1 November 1973) is an Indian actress who is primarily known for her work in Hindi and Tamil films. The winner of the Miss World 1994 pageant, she has established herself as one of the most popular celebritie ...

in Rituparno's Tagore adaptation, '' Chokher Bali''. He won several awards, including the BFJA Award for the Best Actor. CAREER After Chokher Bali he did several films both commercial and mainstream like Aborto, Biye Not Out,Choukaath, Benche Thakaar Gaan, Bolo Na Tumi Amaar, Paglu-2,Villain, Shapath which cemented his position in the Bengali Film Industry as a dependable actor and a solid performer, one of the very few actors loved by both the class and mass. He did an extended cameo in the

AR Murugadoss Murugadoss Arunasalam (born 25 September 1974), commonly known as A. R. Murugadoss, is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter who predominantly works in the Tamil film industry. He is best known for directing action films mainly on ...

directed ''

Kaththi ''Kaththi'' (; ) is a 2014 Indian Tamil language, Tamil-language action film, action Social problem film, social drama film written and directed by A. R. Murugadoss, and produced by Subaskaran Allirajah, Allirajah Subaskaran under the banner Ly ...

'' which introduced him into

Tamil film industry Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywood ...

. He also starred in the

Sujoy Ghosh Sujoy Ghosh is an Indian film director, actor, producer, and screenwriter who works in Hindi films. He has directed ''Jhankaar Beats'' (2003), '' Home Delivery: Aapko... Ghar Tak'' (2005), '' Aladin'' (2009), ''Kahaani'' (2012), ''Kahaani 2'' (2 ...

directed short film ''Ahalya'' alongside

Soumitra Chatterjee Soumitra Chatterjee (also spelt as Chattopadhyay; 16 June 193515 November 2020) was an Indian film actor, play-director, playwright, writer, thespian and poet. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of ...

and

Radhika Apte Radhika Apte (born 7 September 1985) is an Indian actress. She works predominantly in Hindi films, and has appeared in a few Tamil language, Tamil, Marathi language, Marathi, Telugu language, Telugu, Bengali language, Bengali, and English-langua ...

. This short film went viral and he was noticed for his powerful presence as the police inspector He played the role of Arun in the film '' Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh''; directed by

opposite

Vidya Balan Vidya Balan (pronounced ; born 1 January 1979) is an Indian actress. Known for pioneering a change in the portrayal of women in Hindi cinema with her roles in female-led films, she is the recipient of several awards, including a National Fi ...

, which got him noticed by the

Hindi film industry Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

. His second

film ''

Indu Sarkar ''Indu Sarkar'' is a 2017 Indian period political thriller film, co-written, co-produced and directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. The story screenplay of the movie is written by Anil Pandey and Madhur Bhandarkar and the dialogues are penned by Sanjay ...

'' directed by Madhur Bhandarkar was released in 2017. He was cast opposite Kirti Kulhari and his portrayal of the troubled government servant Navin fetched him recognition and praises. Industry veteran Anupam Kher tweeted 'Tota in Indu Sarkar is a brilliant piece of casting ‘ and Asutosh Gowariker tweeted 'Superb performance by Tota Roy Choudhury ‘. His next film was Helicopter Eela where he was cast opposite Kajol. The film was directed by Pradeep Sarkar. His portrayal of the psychologically disturbed Arun fetched him good reviews. He was again sought after by the southern film industry and was cast as SSP Praveen Kumar in the Kannada film Ranchi. He then did a cameo in '' The Girl on the Train'', a Hindi remake of English film of the same name. The film co-starring Parineeti Chopra, Aditi Rao Hydari and Kirti Kulhari was produced by Reliance Entertainment. He also plays the iconic Bengali detective Feluda created by Satyajit Ray, in a web series directed by the multiple national award winner Srijit Mukherji. Currently he is a part of Karan Johar's directorial comeback Rocky aur Rani ki prem kahaani; along with Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt.

Filmography

Films

Television and Streaming television

* ''

Ekhane Aakash Neel ''Ekhane Aakash Neel'' was a Bengali medical romantic drama series which aired on Star Jalsha. It was the remake of StarPlus '' Sanjivani''. The serial was set in a nursing home, and is themed on the love between Dr. Ujaan Chatterjee, a respect ...

'' (2008-2009) as Dr. Romit Sen * ''

Taranath Tantrik Taranath Tantrik is a fictional character of Bengali literature created by Bengali legendary novelist Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay and later by his son Taradas Bandyopadhyay. Character Taranath Tantrik is a mystic figure and practitioner of ...

'' (2016); based on the character created by Taradas Bandopadhyay * ''

Sreemoyee ''Sreemoyee'' is an Indian Bengali serial that aired on Star Jalsha and is also digitally available on Disney+ Hotstar. It was produced by Magic Moments Motion Pictures Pvt. Ltd of Saibal Banerjee and Leena Gangopadhyay, which premiered on 10 ...

'' (2019-2021) as Rohit Sen * ''

(Season 1)'' (2020) as Feluda * ''

Feludar Goyendagiri Feludar Goyendagiri is an Indian streaming television series, directed by Srijit Mukherji. It is based on the stories of the Bengali sleuth Feluda, written by Satyajit Ray. Originally known as Feluda Pherot and streaming on Addatimes, the show ...

(Season 1)'' (2022) as Feluda * ''

(Season 2)'' (2023) as Feluda

Awards

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chowdhury, Tota Roy Indian male film actors Living people Male actors from Kolkata Bengali male actors Male actors in Bengali cinema University of Calcutta alumni 1976 births 20th-century Indian male actors