List of notable people from Kolkata, that is, people born in or associated with the city.

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 ...

has been regarded as the cultural capital of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Poets and writers

List of notable people

Philosophers and religious teachers

The most famous religious figure of Kolkata is, without a doubt,

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, MC (; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa ( sq, Nënë Tereza), was an Indian-Albanian Catholic nun who, in 1950, founded the Missionaries of Charity. Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu () was bo ...

. Others are (in order of surname): *

Bhakti Hridaya Bon Bhakti Hridaya Bon ( sa, भक्ति हृदय वन, ), also known as Swami Bon ( Baharpur, 23 March 1901 – Vrindavan, 7 July 1982), was a disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and a guru in the Gaudiya Math following the philoso ...

(1901—1982) * Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Goswami (1898—1968) *Rajendra Pillai (1968-) * A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896—1977), founder of

ISKCON The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement or Hare Krishnas, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava Hindu religious organization. ISKCON was founded in 1966 in New York City by A. C. Bhaktive ...

. *

Ramakrishna Ramakrishna Paramahansa ( bn, রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস, Ramôkṛṣṇo Pôromohôṅso; , 18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886),——— — also spelled Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, born Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya,, was an In ...

(1836—1886) *

Ram Mohan Roy Raja Ram Mohan Roy ( bn, রামমোহন রায়; 22 May 1772 – 27 September 1833) was an Indian reformer who was one of the founders of the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, the precursor of the Brahmo Samaj, a social-religious reform m ...

(1772—1833) *

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati (; bn, ভক্তিসিদ্ধান্ত সরস্বতী; ; 6 February 1874 – 1 January 1937), born Bimala Prasad Datt (, ), was a Gaudīya Vaisnava Hindu guru (spiritual master), ācārya (philo ...

(1874—1837), founder of

Gaudiya Math The Gaudiya Math (, ; ) is a Gaudiya Vaishnava ''matha'' (monastic organisation) formed on 6 September 1920,Devamayī dāsi, "A Divine Life: Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda" in ''Prabhupada Saraswati Thakur: The Li ...

. *

Keshab Chandra Sen Keshub Chandra Sen ( bn, কেশবচন্দ্র সেন; also spelled Keshab Chunder Sen; 19 November 1838 – 8 January 1884) was a Hindu philosopher and social reformer who attempted to incorporate Christian theology within ...

(1838—1884) *

Debendranath Tagore Debendranath Tagore (15 May 1817 – 19 January 1905) was an Indian Hindu philosopher and religious reformer, active in the Brahmo Samaj (earlier called Bhramho Sabha) ("Society of Brahma", also translated as ''Society of God''). He joined Brahm ...

(1817—1905) *

Bhaktivinoda Thakur Bhaktivinoda Thakur (, ) (2 September 1838 – 23 June 1914), born Kedarnath Datta (, ), was a Hindu philosopher, guru and spiritual reformer of Gaudiya Vaishnavism who effected its resurgence in India in late 19th and early 20th century and ...

(1838—1914) *

Swami Vivekananda Swami Vivekananda (; ; 12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta (), was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the intro ...

(1863—1902)

Scientists

List in order of surname. * James Atkinson (1780—1852), surgeon, artist and Persian scholar. *

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (;, ; 30 November 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a biologist, physicist, botanist and an early writer of science fiction. He was a pioneer in the investigation of radio microwave optics, made significant contribution ...

(1858—1937), Bengali polymath, physicist, biologist, biophysicist, botanist and archaeologist. * Asima Chatterjee (1917—2006), chemist. *

Debendra Mohan Bose Debendra Mohan Bose (26 November 1885 – 2 June 1975) was an Indian physicist who made contributions in the field of cosmic rays, artificial radioactivity and neutron physics. He was the longest serving Director (1938–1967) of Bose Institut ...

(1875—1975), physicist. *

Satyendra Nath Bose Satyendra Nath Bose (; 1 January 1894 – 4 February 1974) was a Bengali mathematician and physicist specializing in theoretical physics. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, in developing the foundation for ...

(1894—1974), physicist and polymath from Bengal. * Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay (1890—1977), Bengali linguist. *

Barun De Barun De (30 October 1932 – 16 July 2013) was an Indian historian. He served as the first professor of social and economic history of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, founder-director of the Centre for Studies in Social Sci ...

(1932—2013), historian. *

Brajendranath De Brajendranath Dey (23 December 1852 – 20 September 1932) was an early Indian member of the Indian Civil Service. Early life and education De studied at Hare School, Calcutta, and then Canning Collegiate School and Canning College, Lucknow. ...

(1852—1932), Indian civil servant and orientalist. *

Anil Kumar Gain Anil Kumar Gain FRSS FCPS (1 February 1919 – 7 February 1978) (also spelt Anil Kumar Gayen) was an Indian mathematician and statistician best known for his works on the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient in the field of applied ...

(1919—1978), mathematician and statistician. *

J.B.S. Haldane John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-Indian scientist who worked in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. With innovative use of statistics in biolog ...

(1892—1964), British-Indian scientist, known for his work in the study of

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life fo ...

, and

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis OBE, FNA, FASc, FRS (29 June 1893– 28 June 1972) was an Indian scientist and statistician. He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure, and for being one of the members of the fi ...

(1893—1972), Bengali scientist and applied statistician. *

R.C. Majumdar Ramesh Chandra Majumdar (known as R. C. Majumdar; 4 December 1888 – 11 February 1980) was a historian and professor of History of India, Indian history. Majumdar is a noted historian of modern India. He was a former Sheriff of Kolkata. Early ...

(1884—1980), historian. *

P. J. Marshall Peter James Marshall (born 1933 in Calcutta) is a British historian known for his work on the British Empire, particularly the activities of British East India Company servants in 18th-century Bengal, and also the history of British involvemen ...

(b. 1933), historian. * Subhash Mukhopadhyay (1931—1981), physician. *

Sisir Kumar Mitra Sisir Kumar Mitra (or ''Shishirkumar Mitra'') MBE, FNI, FASB, FIAS, FRS (24 October 1890 – 13 August 1963) was an Indian physicist. Early life and education Mitra was born in his father's hometown of Konnagar, a suburb of Kolkata (then Ca ...

(1890—1963), physicist. *

Rajat Kanta Ray Rajat Kanta Ray ( bn, রজত কান্ত রায়) is a historian of South Asian history, specializing in Modern Indian history. Background He is the son of Kumud Kanta Ray, ICS who was a Home Secretary of West Bengal in the 196 ...

, historian. *

Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri (14 September 1923 – 18 June 2005) was an Indian physicist, known for his research in general relativity and cosmology. His most significant contribution is the eponymous Raychaudhuri equation, which demonstrates that ...

(1923—2005), physicist, known for his research in

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...

and

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount (lexicographer), Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in ...

. *

Tapan Raychaudhuri Tapan Raychaudhuri (8 May 1926 – 26 November 2014) was a British-Indian historian specialising in British Indian history, Indian economic history and the History of Bengal. Early life and education He was the son of Prativa and Amiya Kumar ...

(1926—2014), historian. *

C. R. Rao Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao FRS (born 10 September 1920), commonly known as C. R. Rao, is an Indian-American mathematician and statistician. He is currently professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University and Research Professor at the Un ...

(b. 1920), mathematician and statistician. *

Prafulla Chandra Roy Sir Prafulla Chandra Ray, CIE, FNI, FRASB, FIAS, FCS (also spelled Prafulla Chandra Rây and Prafulla Chandra Roy; bn, প্রফুল্ল চন্দ্র রায় ''Praphulla Chandra Rāy''; 2 August 1861 – 16 June 1944 ...

(1861—1944), Bengali chemist, educationist, historian, industrialist and philanthropist. *

Meghnad Saha Meghnad Saha (6 October 1893 – 16 February 1956) was an Indian astrophysicist who developed the Saha ionization equation, used to describe chemical and physical conditions in stars. His work allowed astronomers to accurately relate the sp ...

(1893—1956), astrophysicist. *

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

Jadunath Sarkar Sir Jadunath Sarkar (10 December 1870 – 19 May 1958) was a prominent Indian historian and a specialist on the Mughal dynasty. Academic career Sarkar was born in Karachmaria village in Natore, Bengal to Rajkumar Sarkar, the local Zamindar ...

(1870—1958), historian. *

Sumit Sarkar Sumit Sarkar (born 1939) is an Indian historian of modern India. He is the author of ''Swadeshi Movement''. Early life, education and career He was born to Susobhan Sarkar. His maternal uncle was Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis. He completed h ...

(b. 1939), historian. *

Susobhan Sarkar Susobhan Chandra Sarkar (1900–1982) was an Indian historian. Background and education Sarkar, son of Suresh Chandra Sarkar, was born into a Brahmo family of Dhaka. He attended Dhaka Collegiate School, studied history at Presidency College, ...

(1900—1982), historian. *

Tapan Kumar Sarkar Tapan Kumar Sarkar ( bn, তপন কুমার সরকার; August 2, 1948 – March 12, 2021) was an Indian-American electrical engineer and Professor Emeritus at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Syracu ...

(1948—2021), electrical engineer. *

Ashoke Sen Ashoke Sen FRS (; born 1956) is an Indian theoretical physicist and distinguished professor at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad. He is also an honorary fellow in National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhu ...

(b. 1956),

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experimen ...

. * Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay (b. 1968),

Computer Scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...

* Sukumar Sen (linguist) historian of Bengali literature. *

Upendranath Brahmachari Rai Bahadur Sir Upendranath Brahmachari ( bn, উপেন্দ্রনাথ ব্রহ্মচারী) (19 December 1873 – 6 February 1946) was a leading Indian physician and scientist of his time. He synthesised Urea-Stibamine (car ...

Ujjwal Maulik Ujjwal Maulik is an Indian computer scientist and a professor. He is the former chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He also held the position of the principal-in-char ...

(b. 1965),

R. D. Banerji Rakhal Das Banerji, also Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay (12 April 1885 – 23 May 1930), was an Indian archaeologist and an officer of the Archeological Survey of India (ASI). In 1919, he became the second ASI officer deputed to survey the site of ...

archeologist

Gallantry Awards winners

Ashoka Chakra * Flight Lieutenant Suhas Biswas

Maha Vir Chakra The Maha Vir Chakra (MVC) () is the second highest military decoration in India, after the Param Vir Chakra, and is awarded for acts of conspicuous gallantry in the presence of the enemy, whether on land, at sea or in the air. It replaced the B ...

* Squadron Leader Madhavendra Banerji

Bankers and business people

* Amar Kumar Bera * P. C. Bhattacharya, 7th Governor,

Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible for ...

Aditya Vikram Birla Aditya Vikram Birla (14 November 1943 – 1 October 1995) was an Indian industrialist. Born into one of the largest business families of India, he oversaw the diversification of his group into textiles, petrochemicals and telecommunications. ...

Rama Prasad Goenka Rama Prasad Goenka (1 March 1930 – 14 April 2013) was the founder and chairman Emeritus of the RPG Group, a multi-sector Indian industrial conglomerate. Born in 1930, he was the eldest son of Keshav Prasad Goenka and grandson of Sir Badri ...

(

RPG Group The Rama Prasad Goenka Group, commonly known as RPG Group, is an Indian industrial and services conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The roots of the RPG Group can be traced back to the enterprise of Ramdutt Goenka in 1820. RPG ...

) *

Sanjiv Goenka Sanjiv Goenka (born 29 January 1961) is an Indian entrepreneur. He is the founder and chairman of RPSG Group and an early-stage investor. With a US$6 billion asset base and US$4.3 billion revenue, this multinational conglomerate is headquarter ...

* Chandra Shekhar Ghosh (founder of

Bandhan Bank Bandhan Bank Ltd. is a banking and financial services company, headquartered in Kolkata. Bandhan Bank is present in 34 out of 36 states and union territories of India, with 5,646 banking outlets and more than 2.77 crore customers. Having re ...

) *

Radhe Shyam Agarwal Radhe Shyam Agarwal (also known as R S Agarwal) is an Indian entrepreneur, co-founder and executive chairman of Emami, a global group of company engaged in the business of FMCG, paper, real estate, edible oils, health care and cement. Radhe is ...

Radhe Shyam Goenka Radhe Shyam Goenka (also known as R. S. Goenka) is an Indian entrepreneur, co-founder and whole time Director of Emami, a diversified business conglomerate engaged in the business of FMCG, paper, real estate, edible oil & bio-diesel, health car ...

Rajat Gupta Rajat Kumar Gupta (; born ) is an Indian-American businessman and convicted felon who, as CEO, was the first foreign-born managing director of management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company from 1994 to 2003. In 2012, he was convicted for insider ...

(b. 1948) *

Nalini Ranjan Sarkar Nalini Ranjan Sarkar () (1882–25 January 1953) was an Indian businessman, industrialist, economist, and public leader. He was greatly involved in the political and economic regeneration of Bengal. Sarkar was Finance Minister of West Bengal in ...

* Mati Lall Seal *

Ellis Jacob Ellis Jacob (born 1953) is a Canadian business executive who serves as the president and chief executive officer of Cineplex Entertainment. Since 1987, he has been involved in the movie theatre industry. He was the founder of Galaxy Entertainm ...

(founder of

Cineplex Entertainment Cineplex Inc. (formerly Cineplex Galaxy) is a Canadian movie theatre and family entertainment centre chain headquartered in Toronto. The company was formed in 2003 via the acquisition of Loews Cineplex's Canadian operations (which included ...

) *

Tiny Rowland Roland Walter "Tiny" Rowland (; 27 November 1917 – 25 July 1998) was a British businessman, corporate raider and the chief executive of the Lonrho conglomerate from 1962 to 1993. He gained fame from a number of high-profile takeover bids, in p ...

(chairman of

Lonrho Lonrho is a London-based conglomerate that was established in 1998 as Lonrho Africa plc. It is engaged in multiple business sectors in Africa, mainly agribusiness, infrastructure, transport, hospitality and support services. History Lonrho ...

from 1962 to 1993)

Freedom fighters

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as ''Vande Mataram''. He joined the ...

Benoy Basu Benoy Krishna Basu ( bn, বিনয় কৃষ্ণ বসু ''Binôe Boshu'') or Benoy Basu or Benoy Bose (11 September 1908 – 13 December 1930) was an Indian revolutionary against British rule in India, who launched an attack on th ...

Khudiram Bose Khudiram Bose (also spelled ''Khudiram Basu'') (3 December 1889 – 11 August 1908) was an Indian revolutionary from Bengal Presidency who opposed British rule of India. For his role in the Muzaffarpur Conspiracy Case, along with Prafulla ...

Rash Behari Bose Rash Behari Bose (; 25 May 1886 – 21 January 1945) was an Indian revolutionary leader against the British Raj. He was one of the key organisers of the Ghadar Mutiny and founded the First Indian National Army during World War 2. The Indian N ...

Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945 * * * * * * * * *) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperia ...

* Jogesh Chandra Chattopadhyay *

Chittaranjan Das Chittaranjan Das (5 November 1870 – 16 June 1925), popularly called ''Deshbandhu'' (Friend of the Nation), was an Indian freedom fighter, political activist and lawyer during the Indian independence movement and founder-leader of the Swar ...

Jatindra Nath Das Jatindra Nath Das ( bn, যতীন্দ্রনাথ দাস; 27 October 1904 – 13 September 1929), better known as Jatin Das, was an Indian independence activist and revolutionary who worked to make India independent from the Bri ...

Bagha Jatin Bagha Jatin (; ) or Baghajatin, born Jatindranath Mukherjee (); 7 December 1879 – 10 September 1915) was an Indian independence activist. He was the principal leader of the Jugantar party that was the central association of revolutionary i ...

Badal Gupta Badal Gupta ( bn, বাদল গুপ্ত ''Badol Gupto''), real name Sudhir Gupta (1912 – 8 December 1930), was an Indian revolutionary against British rule in India, who is noted for launching an attack on the Secretariat Building - t ...

Dinesh Gupta Dinesh Chandra Gupta ( bn, দিনেশ চন্দ্র গুপ্ত ''Dinesh Chôndro Gupto'') or Dinesh Gupta (6 December 1911 – 7 July 1931) was an Indian revolutionary against British rule in India, who is noted for launching an ...

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Syama Prasad Mukherjee (6 July 1901 – 23 June 1953) was an Indian politician, barrister and academician, who served as India's first Minister for Industry and Supply (currently known as Ministry of Commerce and Industry (India), Ministry of C ...

Bipin Chandra Pal Bipin Chandra Pal ( bn, বিপিন চন্দ্র পাল ; 7 November 1858 – 20 May 1932) was an Indian nationalist, writer, orator, social reformer and Indian independence movement freedom fighter. He was one third of the “L ...

* Sudhamoy Pramanick *

Bidhan Chandra Roy Bidhan Chandra Roy (1 July 1882 – 1 July 1962) was an Indian physician, educationist, and statesman who served as Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1948 until his death in 1962. Roy played a key role in the founding of several institutio ...

Ashoke Kumar Sen Ashoke Kumar Sen (10 October 1913 – 21 September 1996) was an Indian barrister, a former Cabinet minister of India, and an Indian parliamentarian. He also holds the record for winning a Lok Sabha seat the most times and also the record for b ...

Matangini Hazra Matangini Hazra (19 October 1870 – 29 September 1942) was an Indian revolutionary who participated in the Indian independence movement until she was shot dead by the British Indian police in front of the Tamluk Police Station (of erstwhile Mi ...

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Hussaini Azad (; 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian independence activist, Islamic theologian, writer and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Following Ind ...

Sisir Kumar Ghosh Sisir Kumar Ghosh (1840–1911) was a noted Indian journalist, founder of the '' Amrita Bazar Patrika'', a noted Bengali language newspaper in 1868 and a freedom fighter from Bengal. He started the India League in 1875 with the object of stimul ...

Performing arts

Artists

Directors

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 ...

, who won the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1992, lived in Kolkata and is considered among the greatest directors of film history. Other notable filmmakers from Kolkata include: *

Nitin Bose Nitin Bose (26 April 1897 – 14 April 1986) was an Indian film director, cinematographer and screenwriter of the nation's film industry. He was born in Calcutta and died in the same city. In the 1930s and early 1940s, he worked with New Theatre ...

Buddhadeb Dasgupta Buddhadeb Dasgupta (11 February 1944 – 10 June 2021) was an Indian filmmaker and poet best known for his Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali-language films like ''Bagh Bahadur'', ''Tahader Katha'', ''Charachar'' and ''Uttara (film), Uttara''. Five ...

Anik Dutta Anik DuttaSpelling according to The Times of India' is a Bengali film director who made his directorial debut in 2012 Bengali film Bhooter Bhabishyat. In 2012 he started working on a film on Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay's novel ''Aschorjo Prodip''. An ...

Kaushik Ganguly Kaushik Ganguly (born 4 August 2012) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and actor in Bengali cinema. Multiple National Award winner Actor-Director, Kaushik Ganguly is known for making films that explore various aspects sexuality, like ' ...

Ritwik Ghatak Ritwik Kumar Ghatak (; 4 November 19256 February 1976) was a noted Indian film director, screenwriter, and playwright. Along with prominent contemporary Bengali filmmakers Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha and Mrinal Sen, his cinema is primarily remembe ...

Gautam Ghose Goutam Ghose (also spelled Gautam Ghosh born 24 July 1950) is an Indian film director, Actor, music director and cinematographer, who works primarily in Bengali cinema. He is the only Indian to have received the "Vittorio Di Sica" Award, Italy ...

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 ...

Hrishikesh Mukherjee Hrishikesh Mukherjee (30 September 1922 – 27 August 2006) was an Indian film director, editor and writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of Indian cinema. Popularly known as ''Hrishi-da'', he directed 42 films during his car ...

Srijit Mukherji Srijit Mukherji is an excellent national award winning Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali cinema. His regular collaboration with veteran actor Prosenjit Chatterjee brought him into the ...

Shiboprosad Mukherjee Shiboprosad Mukherjee (, Bengali: ; born 20 May 1974) is an Indian film director, writer and actor. He, collaborating with Nandita Roy, debuted with their film ''Icche'', which garnered both critical acclaim as well as commercial success. The ...

Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury is an Indian film director. He is the director and producer of multiple Bengali and Hindi films. He directed the highly successful Hindi movie ''Pink'' which received accolades from film critics and movie lovers alike. C ...

Tapan Sinha Tapan Sinha (2 October 1924 – 15 January 2009) was one of the most prominent Indian film directors of his time forming a legendary quartet with Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen. He was primarily a Bengali filmmaker who worked both ...

Aparna Sen Aparna Sen (, ''Ôporna Shen'') is an Indian film director, screenwriter and actress who is known for her work in Bengali cinema. She has received several accolades as an actress and filmmaker, including nine National Film Awards, five Filmf ...

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 ...

Manick Sorcar Manick Sorcar (formal name Prafulla Chandra "P.C." Sorcar) is an Indian American artist, animator, engineer, and laserist. Sorcar is an artist

Cinema actors

Uttam Kumar Uttam Kumar ( bn, উত্তম কুমার; born Arun Kumar Chattopadhyay; 3 September 1926 – 24 July 1980), popularly known as the Mahanayak, was an Indian actor, producer, director, Screenwriter, script writer, composer, and sing ...

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 The ...

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 ...

Sabyasachi Chakrabarty Sabyasachi Chakrabarty is an Indian actor of theatre, films and television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the ...

* Dhritiman Chaterji *

Tapen Chatterjee Tapen Chatterjee (3 September 1937 – 24 May 2010) was a Bengali actor from India who played several roles in Satyajit Ray's films, notably as Goopy Gyne in ''Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne'' (1968), and its sequels '' Heerak Rajar Deshe'' (1980) ...

Rabi Ghosh Robi Ghosh ( bn, রবি ঘোষ) (24 November 1931 – 4 February 1997) was an Indian actor known for his work in Bengali cinema. He is known for his comic appeal, though his versatile acting talent brought him success in various kin ...

Barun Chanda Barun Chanda is an Indian Bengali advertising professional, actor and author based in the city of Kolkata. He is mostly remembered for his role in Satyajit Ray's '' Seemabaddha''. Biography Chanda was born in Dhaka in present day Bangladesh, ...

Pahari Sanyal Pahari Sanyal (22 February 1906 – 10 February 1974) was an Indian actor and singer who is known for his work in Bengali cinema. Sanyal acted in many Bengali films, such as ''Harano Sur'', ''Bhanu Goenda Jahar Assistant'', and ''Shilpi''. B ...

* N. Viswanathan *

Chhabi Biswas Chhabi Biswas (''Chabi Biśbās'') (13 July 1900 – 11 June 1962) was an Indian actor, primarily known for his performances in Tapan Sinha's '' Kabuliwala'' and Satyajit Ray's films '' Jalshaghar'' (''The Music Room'', 1958), '' Devi'' ( ...

Karuna Bannerjee Karuna Banerjee ( bn, করুণা ব্যানার্জী) (25 December 1919 – 13 November 2001) was a Bengali actress best known for her role in Satyajit Ray's ''The Apu Trilogy'' (1955–1959) as the long suffering mother, Sarbaja ...

Anil Chatterjee Anil Chatterjee (Chattopadhyay) bn, অনিল চ্যাটার্জী (চট্টোপাধ্যায়) (25 October 1929 – 17 March 1996) was an Indian actor in the Bengali cinema during the early fifties through the mid-ni ...

* Subir Banerjee *

Roopa Ganguly Roopa Ganguly is an Indian actress, playback singer and politician. She is best known for her portrayal of Draupadi in B R Chopra's hit television series ''Mahabharat''. Often promoted as the Tollywood's answer to Bollywood's Shabana Azmi, she ...

* Uma Dasgupta *

Saswata Chatterjee Saswata Chatterjee (born 19 December 1970) is an Indian actor of television and films based in Kolkata. Born to actor Subhendu Chatterjee, Saswata Chatterjee began his career with a Hindi serial directed by Saibal Mitra, based on Samaresh Majum ...

Tarun Kumar Tarun Kumar (born 8 January 1980) is an Indian actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has also appeared in few Tamil and Malayalam films. He has received three state Nandi Awards and the National Film Award for his works. H ...

* Anup Kumar *

Ashok Kumar Kumudlal Ganguly (13 October 1911 – 10 December 2001), better known by his stage name Ashok Kumar and also by Dadamoni, was an Indian actor who attained iconic status in Indian cinema and who was a member of the cinematic Ganguly family. He ...

Bhanu Bandopadhyay Bhanu Bandyopadhyay, also known as Bhanu Banerjee (born as Samyamoy Bandyopadhyay; 26 August 1920 – 4 March 1983), was an Indian actor, known for his work in Bengali cinema. He acted in over 300 movies, in numerous plays and performed freque ...

Biswajit Chatterjee Biswajit Chatterjee (born 14 December 1936), known mononymously as Biswajit, is an Indian actor, producer, director, singer and politician known for his work in Hindi and Bengali cinema. Early career After films in Calcutta including ''May ...

Prosenjit Chatterjee Prosenjit Chatterjee (born 30 September 1962) is an Indian actor and producer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading actors in modern Bengali cinema. He predominantly works in Bengali cinema . He is the son of veteran Bollywood actor Bisw ...

Jahor Roy Jahar Roy (19 September 1919 – 1 August 1977) was an Indian actor and comedian in Bengali cinema. He was known for his comedy films with Bhanu Bandyopadhyay. Early life Roy came from a Bengali Baidya family having its root in Mahilara, B ...

Kanan Devi Kanan Devi (22 April 1916 – 17 July 1992) was an Indian actress and singer. She was among the early singing stars of Indian cinema, and is credited popularly as the first star of Bengali cinema. Her singing style, usually in rapid tempo, was ...

Sagarika Mukherjee Sagarika Mukherjee (born 4 September 1970), also known as Saag, is an Indian singer and actress. She sings mainly in Hindi, Assamese and Bengali language songs but has also sung in Tamil and Telugu languages. She is the daughter of singer an ...

* Swastika Mukherjee * Razzak * Dev, MP, actor and film producer * Jeet *

Ruma Guha Thakurta Ruma Guha Thakurta (21 November 1934 – 3 June 2019) was an Indian actress and singer primarily associated with Bengali language films. She founded Calcutta Youth Choir in 1958. Early life Ruma Guha Thakurta was born on 3 November 1934 to ...

Ranjit Mallick Ranjit Mallick (রঞ্জিত মল্লিক) (born 28 September 1944) is an Indian actor who works mainly in Bengali cinema. He is particularly known for appearing in films such as ''Interview'', '' Mouchak'', ''Shatru'', ''Shakha Pr ...

* Mirza Abbas Ali * Suchitra Sen *

Sushmita Sen Sushmita Sen (born 19 November 1975) is an Indian actress, model and the winner of the Miss Universe 1994 pageant. She is the first Indian to win the Miss Universe pageant. She was previously crowned Femina Miss India 1994 at the age of 18. A ...

Moonmoon Sen Moon Moon Sen, also credited as Moonmoon Sen (born Srimati Sen; 28 March 1954), is an Indian actress, known for her works in Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, and Marathi films. She eventually starred in Bollywood films. She ...

Riya Sen Riya Sen (born Riya Dev Varma; 24 January 1981) is an Indian actress and model. who predominantly appears in Hindi, Bengali, English, Telugu and Tamil films. Sen comes from a royal background; her father Bharat Dev Varma hails from the royal ...

Raima Sen Raima Sen (born Raima Dev Varma on 7 November 1979) is an Indian actress who is known for her work in the Hindi and Bengali films. Early life Raima Sen was born on 7 November 1979 in Bombay (now Mumbai) to Moon Moon Sen and Bharat Dev Varma a ...

Reema Sen Reema Sen (born 29 October 1981) is an Indian actress and model who primarily appeared in Bengali theatre films, Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi films. Early life and education Sen was born in Kolkata on 29 October 1981. She completed high school fro ...

Omar Sani Mohammad Omar Sani (born 6 May 1968), is a Bangladeshi film and television actor. Career Sani's film debut was in the 1990 film ''Chader Alo'', directed by Shaikh Najrul Islam Khan. He acted in ''Prem Protishodh'' (1993) and ''Mohoth'' (1994). ...

Victor Banerjee Victor Banerjee is an Indian actor who appears in English, Hindi, Bengali and Assamese language films. He has worked for directors such as Roman Polanski, James Ivory, Sir David Lean, Jerry London, Ronald Neame, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Shya ...

Parambrata Chatterjee Parambrata Chattopadhyay (born 27 June 1980) is an Indian actor and director. Parambrata started his career with Bengali television and films. He has acted as the fictional character Topshe from Feluda under Sandip Ray's direction. He made his ...

Konkona Sen Sharma Konkona Sen Sharma (born 3 December 1979) is an Indian actress and filmmaker who works primarily in Hindi and Bengali films. She has received two National Film Awards and four Filmfare Awards. The daughter of filmmakeractress Aparna Sen, Sen ...

Varsha Ashwathi Varsha R Ashwathi is an Indian actress, who appears in Tamil films. Varsha won the 'Miss Beautiful' title in the 2006 "Miss" Chennai contest. In the year 2009, Varsha made her acting debut in Tamil film ''Peranmai'' which co-starred Jeyam Ravi. ...

Abhishek Chatterjee Abhishek Chatterjee (30 April 1964 – 24 March 2022) was an Indian actor who was known for his work in Bengali cinema. He made his big screen debut alongside veterans such as Sandhya Roy, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Tapas Paul, and Utpal Dutt with ...

Tathagata Mukherjee Tathagata Mukherjee (born 15 May 1985) is a Kolkata-based Indian actor and independent filmmaker. He is best known for his acting in several Bengali soap operas. Early life Tathagata Mukherjee was born on May 15th, 1985, in Kolkata, India. Du ...

Monali Thakur Monali Thakur (born 3 November 1985) is an Indian singer and actress. She is the recipient of several awards including a National Film Award for the song "Moh Moh Ke Dhaage" from the film '' Dum Laga Ke Haisha'' (2015) and a Filmfare Award for ...

, singer and actress. *

Ankush Hazra Ankush Hazra is an Indian actor, film producer, dancer, television personality in Bengali Film Industry. He debuted in 2010 with the film '' Kellafate''. He has also appeared in '' Khiladi'', ''Kanamachi'', ''Ami Shudhu Cheyechi Tomay'', ''Vi ...

Yash Dasgupta Yash Dasgupta (born as Debashish Dasgupta on 10 October 1985) is an Indian actor, television personality, politician. He works Hindi and Bengali language, Bengali Film industry. He started his career in television, and his movie debut was in t ...

* Bonny Sengupta *

Nusrat Jahan Nusrat Jahan Ruhi (born 8 January 1990) is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Bengali cinema. In 2019, Jahan became actively involved in politics and was elected as Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Basirhat constituency as a Tri ...

, MP and actress *

Mimi Chakraborty Mimi Chakraborty (born 11 February 1989) is an Indian actress, singer and politician. She is known for her work in Bengali cinema and television. Her debut film was Bapi Bari Jaa in which she played the female lead, Dola. She was listed as ...

, MP and actress *

Anirban Bhattacharya Anirban Bhattacharya (born 7 October 1986) is an Indian actor, theatre actor, singer and director. His first successful theatre production was ''Debi Sarpamasta'', written by Manoj Mitra, directed by Debesh Chattopadhyay. His other notable work ...

Sayani Gupta Sayani Gupta (born 9 October 1985) is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi films. A graduate from the Film and Television Institute of India, she made her feature film debut in 2012 in ''Second Marriage Dot Com''. She has since appeared in sup ...

Theatre figures

Rudraprasad Sengupta Rudraprasad Sengupta (born 31 January 1935) is a Bengali Indian actor, director and cultural critic. Biography Sengupta was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), Bengal, the son of Anant Sengupta and Usha Prabha Sengupta. He studied at the Scottish ...

, actor and director. *

Sambhu Mitra Sombhu Mitra (22 August 1915 – 19 May 1997) was an Indian film and stage actor, director, playwright, reciter and an Indian theatre personality, known especially for his involvement in Bengali theatre, where he is considered a pioneer. H ...

, actor and director. * Girishchandra Ghosh father of Bengali theatre

Photographers

Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri is a multidisciplinary artist, film director, fashion and documentary photographer, public speaker, television personality, Princeton University educator, founder and chief marketing officer, known mononymously as "Indrani" ...

Benu Sen Benu Sen (26 May 1932 – 17 May 2011) was an Indian photographer from Kolkata, India. He was the second son among seven children of Manindranath and Provabati Sengupta. He was the Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Photography (FIP) ...

* Sunil Das * Sunil Janah

Composers

Jeet Ganguly Jeet Gannguli (, born Chandrajeet Ganguly, on 24 May 1977), is an Indian score composer of Bengali and Hindi movies. Early life and education Born in a Bengali Brahmin family, Gannguli was initiated into the world of music at the age of thr ...

Kabir Suman Kabir Suman (born Suman Chattopadhyay; 16 March 1949) is an Indian music director, songwriter, singer, composer, politician, and former journalist.

Salil Chowdhury Salil Chowdhury (19 November 1925 – 5 September 1995) was an Indian music director, songwriter, lyricist, writer and poet who predominantly composed for Bengali, Hindi and Malayalam films. He composed music for films in 13 languages. This incl ...

Rahul Dev Burman Rahul Dev Burman (27 June 1939 – 4 January 1994) was an Indian music director who is considered one of the most influential composers of India. From the 1960s to the 1990s, Burman composed musical scores for 331 films. Burman did major work w ...

Shashi Preetam Shashi Preetam is an Indian film composer, music director, singer-songwriter, musician, filmmaker and philanthropist. He rose to fame as a composer with the film Gulabi, which became one of the greatest musical hits of the Telugu film industr ...

Sachin Dev Burman Sachin may refer to: * Sachin (given name), an Indian given name, including a list of people with the name ** Sachin (actor) (born 1957), Indian actor and filmmaker ** Sachin Tendulkar (born 1973), Indian cricketer Films * ''Sachein'', a 2005 Tam ...

Bappi Lahiri Bappi Aparesh Lahiri (born Alokesh Aparesh Lahiri; 27 November 1952 – 15 February 2022), also known as Bappi Da was an Indian singer, composer and record producer. He popularised the use of synthesised disco music in Indian music industry and ...

Shantanu Moitra Shantanu Moitra (born 22 January 1968) is an Indian score composer, musician and pianist who has composed songs for the Hindi film industry, and is most known for his scores in the films '' Parineeta'' (2005), ''Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi'' (200 ...

Pritam Pritam Chakraborty (born 14 June 1971), also known mononymously as Pritam, is an Indian composer, instrumentalist, guitarist, and singer. After working as an ad jingles composer, he debuted as a co-composer in the 2001 Hindi film Tere Liye. A ...

Hemanta Mukhopadhyay Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989), known professionally as Hemant Kumar and Hemanta Mukherjee, was a legendary Indian music composer and playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, as well as other Indian ...

Nachiketa Ghosh Nachiketa Ghosh (28 January 1925 – 12 October 1976) was a Bengali music director in India. He mainly composed for Bengali, Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan ...

Sudhin Dasgupta Sudhin Dasgupta ( bn, সুধীন দাশগুপ্ত; 9 October 1929 – 10 January 1982) was a prolific Bengali music director, lyricist, and singer. He worked in various other Indian languages, such as Hindi, Assamese and Oriya ...

Shreyan Chattopadhyay Shreyan Chattopadhyay, born Shreyan Chatterjee, also known by his nickname Dodo, is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, music producer and musician; who works primarily in Kolkata. His works are noted for integrating traditional orchestral arra ...

* Anupam Roy *

Anjan Dutt Anjan Dutt (Bengali: অঞ্জন দত্ত) is an Indian film director, actor, and singer-songwriter known for his work in the Bengali alternative music genre ''anyodharar gaan''. As an actor, Dutt began his career in Bengali cinema i ...

Jaimin Rajani Jaimin Rajani (born on 30 June 1991 in Bombay) is a singer-songwriter and documentary filmmaker from Calcutta, India. He writes songs into the traditions of folk and rock music. As a producer, Jaimin has worked on the albums ‘Then & Now’ (20 ...

Pankaj Mullick Pankaj Kumar Mullick (10 May 1905 – 19 February 1978) was an Indian music composer, playback singer and actor, who was a pioneer of film music in Bengali cinema and Hindi cinema at the advent of playback singing, as well as an early exponent ...

* Anil Biswas *

Shyamal Mitra Shyamal Mitra (14 January 1929 – 15 November 1987) was an Indian versatile playback singer and music director along with Hemanta Mukherjee and Manna Dey. Mitra had also worked in many Hindi and Bengali films as a music director and film produce ...

Hindustani classical singers/maestros

* Ustad Allauddin Khan *

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan Ali Akbar Khan (14 April 192218 June 2009) was a Indian Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod. Trained as a classical musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin Khan, he ...

Pandit Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known export of North Ind ...

Ananda Shankar Ananda Shankar (11 December 1942 – 26 March 1999) was an Indian musician, singer, and composer best known for fusing Western and Eastern musical styles. He was married to dancer and choreographer Tanusree Shankar. Life Born in Almora in U ...

Ustad Vilayat Khan Ustad Vilayat Khan (28 August 1928 – 13 March 2004) was an Indian classical sitar player.Pandit Jasraj Pandit Jasraj (28 January 1930 – 17 August 2020) was an Indian classical vocalist, belonging to the '' Mewati gharana'' (musical apprenticeship lineage). His musical career spanned 75 years resulting in national and international fame ...

Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan (2 April 1902 – 23 April 1968) was an Indian Hindustani classical vocalist, from the Patiala gharana.Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi BR (; ; 4 February 1922 – 24 January 2011), also known by the honorific prefix Pandit, was one of the greatest Indian vocalists from Karnataka, in the Hindustani classical tradition. He is known for the '' khay ...

Rashid Khan Rashid Khan Arman ( ps, ; born 20 September 1998) is an Afghan international cricketer and a former captain of the national team. In franchise leagues, he plays for Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Adelaide Strikers in Austra ...

* Naina Devi * Pandit Nikhil Banerjee *

Ustad Amjad Ali Khan Ustad Amjad Ali Khan (born 9 October 1945) is an Indian classical ''sarod'' player, best known for his clear and fast ekhara taans. Khan was born into a classical musical family and has performed internationally since the 1960s. He was award ...

Ustad Bahadur Khan Ustad Bahadur Khan (born Bahadur Hossain Khan; 19 January 1931 – 3 October 1989) was an Indian sarod player and film score composer. Early life and family Ustad Bahadur Khan, a Bengali, was born on 19 January 1931 in Shibpur, Brahmanbaria, B ...

* Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty * Anjan Chattopadhyay

Hindustani classical instrumentalists

Jyoti Goho Jyoti Goho (born 1953) is an Indian Classical Musician from Kolkata, India. He is well known for Harmonium accompaniment. He belongs to Kirana Gharana. He is working in Indian classical music industry from last 40 years and is a Musician Faculty ...

Sourabh Goho Sourabh Goho (Bengali: সৌরভ গোহো) is an Indian Tabla Player who performs Hindustani classical music and fusion music. He belongs to Farukhabad gharana. He is the son of renowned Harmonium Maestro, Pt. Jyoti Goho. Early life Sour ...

Other singers

* Dwijendra Lal Roy * Suprakash Chaki *

K. C. Dey Krishna Chandra Dey (24 August 1893 – 28 November 1962), better known as K.C. Dey, was an Indian music director, music composer, musician, singer, actor, and music teacher born in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He was S.D. Burman's first musical te ...

Gauhar Jan Gauhar Jaan (born Angelina Yeoward; 26 June 1873 – 17 January 1930) was an Indian singer and dancer from Kolkata. She was one of the first performers to record music on 78 rpm records in India, which was later released by the Gramophone Compa ...

Kanika Bandyopadhyay Kanika Banerjee (12 October 1924 – 5 April 2000) was an Bengali Rabindra Sangeet singer. Biography Early life Born on 12 October 1924 at Sonamukhi in Bankura district, Kanika joined Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan in West Bengal, In ...

* Suchitra Mitra *

Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989), known professionally as Hemant Kumar and Hemanta Mukherjee, was a legendary Indian music composer and playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, as well as other Indian ...

* Manabendra Mukhopadhyay *

Manna Dey Prabodh Chandra Dey (May 1, 1919 − October 24, 2013), known by his stage name Manna Dey, was an internationally acclaimed and celebrated Indian playback singer, music director, and a musician. As a classical vocalist, he belonged to the Bhen ...

Kishore Kumar Kishore Kumar (born as Abhas Kumar Ganguly (); 4 August 1929 – 13 October 1987) was an Indian playback singer and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest, most influential and dynamic singers in the history of Indian music. He ...

Sandhya Mukhopadhyay Geetashree Sandhya Mukherjee (also spelled Mukhopadhyay; 4 October 1931 – 15 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and musician, specialising in Bengali music. She received Banga Bibhushan, the highest civilian honour of the Indian sta ...

Debabrata Biswas Debabrata Biswas (also known as George Biswas and George-''da''; 22 August 1911 – 18 August 1980), was an Indian Rabindra Sangeet singer. Early life Biswas was born in 1911 in Barisal and then later came to Kishoreganj of Mymensingh distri ...

Begum Akhtar Akhtari Bai Faizabadi (7 October 1914 – 30 October 1974), also known as Begum Akhtar, was an Indian singer and actress. Dubbed "Mallika-e-Ghazal" (Queen of Ghazals), she is regarded as one of the greatest singers of ghazal, dadra, and thumr ...

Usha Uthup Usha Uthup Iyer (born 7 November 1947) is an Indian pop, filmi, jazz, and playback singer who sang songs in the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. "Darling", which she recorded with Rekha Bhardwaj for the film ''7 Khoon Maaf'', won the Filmfare Award ...

Indrani Sen Indrani Sen is a Bengali singer who is known for Nazrul geeti and Rabindra Sangeet. Early life Indrani Sen is the daughter of singer Sumitra Sen, and her younger sister is Srabani Sen. Her earliest singing was done under her mother's guidan ...

Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta () is a Bengali musician and exponent of Rabindra Sangeet. Early life Dasgupta was born into a musical family, the daughter of Late Shri Pabitra Dasgupta, a lecturer at Bhatkhande Marris Music College in Lucknow, who tra ...

* Suman Chatterjee *

Rupam Islam Rupam Islam (born 25 January 1974) is an Indian Bengali singer, songwriter, music composer, writer and humanist. He is the lead vocalist of the popular Bengali Rock Band Fossils. He gained popularity mainly through his solo albums and his works ...

Prashant Tamang Prashant Tamang (born 4 January 1983) is an Indian singer and film actor based in Kathmandu. He was the winner of ''Indian Idol Season 3'' in 2007.Shayan Chowdhury Arnob Shayan Chowdhury Arnob, known professionally as Arnob, is a Bangladeshi singer-songwriter, musician, painter, filmmaker, animator and producer. Arnob was the founder of indie folk band ''Bangla'' which stayed active for a decade before going i ...

Contemporary Bollywood musicians

Abhijeet Bhattacharya Abhijeet Bhattacharya (born 30 October 1958), better known as Abhijeet, is a Bollywood playback singer. Abhijeet has sung 6034 songs in over 1000 films. Personal life Abhijeet was born to a Kanpur-based Bengali businessman turned editor Dhir ...

, playback singer. * Anupam Roy (b.1982), singer-songwriter. *

Alka Yagnik Alka, AlkA or ALKA may refer to: People * Alka Ajith (born c. 1997), Indian multilingual playback singer * Alka Amin (active from 2011), Indian television actress * Alka Balram Kshatriya, Indian politician, Member of the Parliament of India repr ...

(b. 1966), playback singer. *

Arijit Singh Arijit Singh (born 25 April 1987) is an Indian singer and music composer. He sings predominantly in Bengali and Hindi, but has also performed in various other Indian languages. He is the recipient of a National Award and six Filmfare Awards ...

(b. 1987), singer, music producer, recordist and music programmer *

Babul Supriyo Babul Supriyo (born 15 December 1970) is an Indian playback singer, live performer, television host, actor and politician who currently serves as Cabinet Minister of Information Technology and Electronics and Tourism of the Government of Wes ...

(b. 1970), playback singer, live performer, television host, actor and politician. *

Kumar Sanu Kedarnath Bhattacharya (born 20 October 1957), better known as Kumar Sanu, is an Indian playback singer. He is known as the King of Melody in Bollywood. He is famous for singing thousands of Bollywood Hindi songs. Apart from Hindi, he has al ...

(b. 1957), playback singer. *

(b. 1971) *

Sagarika Sagarika Mukherjee (born 4 September 1970), also known as Saag, is an Indian singer and actress. She sings mainly in Hindi, Assamese and Bengali language songs but has also sung in Tamil and Telugu languages. She is the daughter of singer ...

(b. 1970), playback singer and actress. *

Shreya Ghoshal Shreya Ghoshal (born 12 March 1984) is an Indian singer and television personality. One of the highest-paid and most well-established playback singers of Indian cinema, she has received four National Film Awards, four Kerala State Film Awar ...

(b. 1984), playback singer. * Shaan (b. 1972), playback singer and actor.

Dancers

Prominent dancers of the city include: *

Uday Shankar Uday Shankar (8 December 1900 – 26 September 1977) was an Indian dancer and choreographer, best known for creating a fusion style of dance, adapting European theatrical techniques to Indian classical dance, imbued with elements of Indian cl ...

and his wife

Amala Shankar Amala Shankar (''née'' Nandy, 27 June 1919 – 24 July 2020) was an Indian danseuse. She was the wife of dancer and choreographer Uday Shankar and mother of musician Ananda Shankar and dancer Mamata Shankar (later she became an actress) and ...

Mamata Shankar Mamata Shankar (born 7 January 1955) is an Indian actress and dancer. She is known for her work in Bengali cinema. She has acted in films by directors including Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Gautam Ghosh. I ...

Tanushree Shankar Tanushree Shankar (born 16 March 1956) is an Indian dancer and choreographer. She is based in Kolkata, India. She was a leading dancer of the Ananda Shankar Centre for Performing Arts in the 1970s and 1980s. She also acted in various films, ...

* Sadhana Bose *

Sharmila Biswas Sharmila Biswas is a noted Indian classical dancer and choreographer in the Odissi, and a disciple of guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. In 1995, she established Odissi Vision and Movement Center in Kolkata, where she is the Artistic Director, the cen ...

Shila Mehta Shila Mehta is an Indian Classical dance artist, choreographer, teacher, and composer. Her background is firmly rooted in the North Indian form of Kathak, which she has taken to audiences across the globe including touring India, North America, ...

, classical dance artist, choreographer, teacher, and composer *

Rani Karnaa ''Rani'' in Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, sometimes spelled ''Ranee'', is a Hindu/Sanskrit feminine given name. The term is the female form of the term for princely rulers in South and Southeast Asia and applies equally to the wife of a ...

* Rajeswari Vaidyanathan, Tedx Speaker, trainer, performer and choreographer

Magicians

Kolkata is the magic capital of India and has produced internationally famous magicians and performers, including: *

P.C. Sorcar Protul Chandra Sorcar (23 February 19136 January 1971) was an Indian magician. He was an internationally active magician throughout the 1950s and 1960s, performing his ''Indrajal'' show before live audiences and on television. Sorcar died of a ...

* P.C. Sorcar, Jr. * P.C. Sorcar, Young

Sports

Norman Pritchard Norman Gilbert Pritchard (23 June 1875 – 30 October 1929), also known by his stage name Norman Trevor, was a British-Indian athlete and actor who became the first Asian-born athlete to win an Olympic medal when he won two silver medals in ...

, track and field,

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

medallist (1900) * Richard James Allen, hockey,

(1928, 1932, 1936) *

Leslie Claudius Leslie Walter Claudius (25 March 1927 – 20 December 2012) was an Indian field hockey player from Bilaspur. He studied in South Eastern Railway (Now SECR) English Medium School Bilaspur which has produced many national sportsmen. Leslie Clau ...

, hockey,

medallist (1924, 1928, 1936) *

Gurbux Singh Gurbux ("Gurbakhsh") Singh Grewal (born 11 February 1936) is a former Indian field hockey player who was a member of the Indian team that won the gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics, the bronze medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics and the g ...

, hockey,

medallist (1964, 1968) *

Vece Paes Miercurea Nirajului ( hu, Nyárádszereda ) is a town in Mureș County, Romania. It lies in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania. The following seven villages are administered by the town: * Beu / Székelybő * Dum ...

, hockey,

medallist (1980) *

Leander Paes Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players ever. He holds the record for the most doubles wins in the Davis Cup. Paes won eight men' ...

, tennis,

medallist (1996) *

Sourav Ganguly Sourav Chandidas Ganguly (; natively spelled as Gangopadhyay; born 8 July 1972), affectionately known as Dada (meaning ''"elder brother"'' in Bengali), is an Indian cricket administrator, commentator and former national cricket team captain w ...

, cricketer, former

India national cricket team The India men's national cricket team, also known as Team India or the Men in Blue, represents India in men's international cricket. It is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and is a List of International Cricket Cou ...

's captain, sports administrator, former BCCI president *

Chhanda Gayen Chhanda Gayen (9 July 1979 – 20 May 2014) was an Indian mountaineer, martial artist, explorer, and teacher of self-defense. She is best known for being the first, and fastest, Indian to climb two eight-thousanders, Mount Everest and Mount ...

, mountaineer, first Bengali woman to summit Mount Everest *

Pankaj Roy Pankaj Roy (; 31 May 1928 – 4 February 2001) was an Indian cricketer and former national cricket team captain. He was right-handed opening batsman, he is best known for establishing the world record opening partnership of 413 runs, together ...

, cricketer *

Laxmi Ratan Shukla Laxmi Ratan Shukla ( bn, লক্ষ্মী রতন শুক্লা) (born 6 May 1981), is a former Indian cricketer and politician. He played as a right-handed middle-order batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler for the Bengal cri ...

, cricketer *

Deep Dasgupta Deep Dasgupta (; born 7 June 1977) is a former Indian cricketer who played in eight Test matches and five One Day Internationals between 2001 and 2006 as the national wicketkeeper and was later replaced by Ajay Ratra. He is now a Hindi and Eng ...

, cricketer *

Rohan Gavaskar Rohan Sunil Gavaskar (born 20 February 1976) is an Indian former cricketer. He played in 11 One Day Internationals. He was a middle-order left-handed batsman and an occasional slow left arm orthodox bowler. Rohan is the son of Indian cricke ...

, cricketer (son of

Sunil Gavaskar Sunil Manohar Gavaskar (Marathi pronunciation: uniːl ɡaːʋəskəɾ ; born 10 July 1949), is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer who represented India and Bombay from 1971 to 1987. Gavaskar is acknowledged as one of the grea ...

) * Manoj Tiwary, cricketer * Ashok Dinda, cricketer *

Wriddhiman Saha Wriddhiman Prasanta Saha (born 24 October 1984) is an Indian cricketer who plays for the Indian national cricket team. He is a right-handed wicket-keeper batsman. He plays for Tripura in domestic cricket and for Gujarat Titans in the Indian Pr ...

, cricketer *

Mohammed Shami Mohammed Shami Ahmed (born 3 September 1990) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for the Indian national cricket team in all formats of the game as a right-arm fast bowler. He plays domestically for Bengal and in the Indian Premier L ...

, cricketer * Len Stubbs, former cricketer *

Chuni Goswami Subimal "Chuni" Goswami (15 January 1938 – 30 April 2020) was an Indian professional footballer and first-class cricketer. As footballer, he played as a striker or winger, captained both the Mohun Bagan club and the Indian national te ...

, footballer *

Gautam Sarkar Gautam Sarkar, also spelt as Goutam Sarkar, and known by the nickname "Indian Beckenbauer" (born 8 January 1950), is a former Indian Bengali international footballer and football coach from West Bengal. He completed his schooling from Baranagore R ...

, footballer * Shailen Manna, footballer, former

India national football team The India national football team represents India in international football and is governed by the All India Football Federation (AIFF). The team is affiliated to FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Indian team, which was once cons ...

's captain (guided India to Gold medal in 1951 Asiad) *

Pradip Kumar Banerjee Pradip Kumar Banerjee (23 June 1936 – 20 March 2020) was an Indian professional footballer who played as a striker for the India national football team. He also captained the national team and later on became the coach of the national ...

, footballer *

Krishanu Dey Krishanu Dey ( bn, কৃশানু দে; 14 February 1962 – 20 March 2003) was an Indian footballer from Kolkata, India. He was an attacking midfielder and was known as the "Indian Maradona" among his fans due to his footballing skills an ...

, footballer * Sudip Chatterjee, footballer *

Subrata Pal Subrata Paul (also Pal; born 24 December 1986) is an Indian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Indian Super League club ATK Mohun Bagan FC, ATK Mohun Bagan, on loan fr ...

, footballer * Subhasish Roy Chowdhury, footballer * Syed Rahim Nabi, footballer *

Mehtab Hossain Mehtab Hossain (born 5 September 1985) is an Indian professional footballer and coach who last played for Madan Maharaj as a defensive midfielder. During his career, Hossain has played for both of the Kolkata football giants, Mohun Bagan and ...

, footballer *

Arnab Mondal Arnab Kumar Mondal (born 25 September 1989) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a centre back. Career Born in Behala, a neighborhood based in Kolkata, West Bengal, Mondal joined the youth team of Mohammedan at the age of 17. In ...

, footballer *

Pronay Halder Pronay Halder ( bn, প্রণয় হালদার; born 25 February 1993) is an Indian footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Indian Super League club Jamshedpur. Club career Born in Barrackpore, West Bengal, Halder sta ...

, footballer *

Pritam Kotal Pritam Kotal ( bn, প্রীতম কোটাল; born 8 September 1993) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Indian Super League club ATK Mohun Bagan, which he captains and the India national team. Club c ...

, footballer * Narayan Das, footballer *

Subhasish Bose Subhasish Prodyut Bose ( bn, শুভাশীষ বসু; born 18 August 1995), is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Indian Super League club ATK Mohun Bagan and the India national team. Career Bose made his ...

, footballer *

Mihir Sen Mihir Sen (16 November 1930 – 11 June 1997) was a famous Indian long distance swimmer and lawyer. He was the first Asian to conquer the English Channel from Dover to Calais in 1958, and did so in the fourth fastest time (14 hrs & 45 mins ...

, record swimmer * Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, track and field *

Arjun Atwal Arjun Singh Atwal (born 20 March 1973) is an Indian professional golfer who has played on the Asian Tour and the European Tour and is the first player born in India to become a member of, and later win a tournament on the U.S.-based PGA Tour. ...

, golfer *

Surya Shekhar Ganguly Surya Sekhar Ganguly (born 24 February 1983), is an Indian chess grandmaster. His peak ELO rating was 2676 (July, 2016). Ganguly became an International Master at the age of 16 and a grandmaster at the age of 19. He has won 40 individual go ...

, chess grandmaster *

Dibyendu Barua Dibyendu Barua (born 27 October 1966) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He is a three-time Indian Chess Champion. He was the second Indian, after Viswanathan Anand, second Bengali after Niaz Murshed, and third South Asian after Niaz and Anand ...

, chess grandmaster *

Sandipan Chanda Sandipan Chanda (born 13 August 1983) is a chess Grandmaster hailing from the city of Kolkata (Calcutta) in the Indian state of West Bengal. He started playing and Sandipan became grandmaster in 2003. In 2004 he won the Curaçao Chess Festival ...

, chess grandmaster *

Deep Sengupta Deep Sengupta (born 30 June 1988) is an Indian chess player. He is India's 22nd player to be awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE. Sengupta competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2017. Career Born in Chakradharpur, Sengupta started chess with t ...

, chess grandmaster *

Gobar Guha Jatindra Charan Guha (13 March 1892 – 2 January 1972), popularly known by his ring name Gobar Guha , was an Indian wrestler and practitioner of Pehlwani. He was the first Asian to win the World Light Heavyweight Championship in the United St ...

, wrestler * Manohar Aich, body builder, Mr. Universe 1952 *

Dipu Ghosh Dipu Ghosh is a former badminton player from India who shined in the 1960s. His brother Raman Ghosh, his long time partner in doubles was also a prominent badminton talent in the country. Ghosh is a former national champion for seven times, in ...

, badminton, Arjuna Award *

Saurav Ghosal Saurav Ghosal (born 10 August 1986, in Kolkata, West Bengal) is a professional squash player from India and reached a career-high world ranking of World No. 10 in April 2019. He completed his schooling at Lakshmipat Singhania Academy in Kolkat ...

, squash player *

Jaidip Mukerjea Jaidip Mukerjea (born 21 April 1942) is a retired professional tennis player from India. Personal life Mukerjea is the grandson of Indian independence leader Chittaranjan Das. He completed his schooling from La Martiniere Calcutta. Tennis car ...

, tennis player *

Jagmohan Dalmiya Jagmohan Dalmiya (30 May 1940 – 20 September 2015) was an Indian cricket administrator and businessman from the city of Kolkata. He was the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India as well as the Cricket Association of Bengal. He ...

, sports administrator *

Pankaj Gupta Pankaj Kumar Gupta (10 September 1898 – 5 March 1971) was one of the earliest Indian sports administrators involved in professional football, hockey and cricket. He is best known for his involvement in professional hockey where he worked va ...

, sports administrator * John Holman, cricketer *

William Laidlay William James Laidlay (12 August 1846 – 25 October 1912) was a Scottish first-class cricketer, barrister and artist. The son of John Watson Laidlay, he was born in August 1846 at Calcutta in British India. He was educated in Scotland at the ...

, cricketer

Nobel laureates

Six

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winners have been associated with Kolkata: *

Sir Ronald Ross Sir Ronald Ross (13 May 1857 – 16 September 1932) was a British medical doctor who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on the transmission of malaria, becoming the first British Nobel laureate, and the f ...

(1857—1932) — Medicine, 1902. *

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

(1861—1941) — Literature, 1913; first Asian to win the Nobel Prize. *

(1910—1997) — Peace, 1979. *

Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, econom ...

(b. 1933) — Economics, 1998. *

Abhijit Banerjee Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee (; born 21 February 1961) is an Indian-American economist who is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Banerjee shared the 2019 Nobel Memorial Priz ...

(b. 1961) - Economics, 2019. *

CV Raman Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (; 7 November 188821 November 1970) was an Indian physicist known for his work in the field of light scattering. Using a spectrograph that he developed, he and his student K. S. Krishnan discovered that wh ...

- Physics

Ramon Magsaysay Award winners

The

Ramon Magsaysay Award The Ramon Magsaysay Award (Filipino: ''Gawad Ramon Magsaysay'') is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealis ...

, sometimes called "Asia's Nobel Prize", is given "to perpetuate his example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society." Kolkata winners include: *

(1910—1997) — Peace and International Understanding, 1962. *

(1921—1992) — Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts, 1967. *

Gour Kishore Ghosh Gour Kishore Ghosh (20 June 1923 – 15 December 2000) was a Bengali writer and journalist. Associated with ''Anandabazar Patrika'' for decades, Ghosh was known for his novels ''Desh Mati Manush'' and ''Prem Nei''. He was the first editor of ''A ...

(1923—2000) — Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts, 1981. *

Mahasweta Devi Mahasweta Devi (14 January 1926 – 28 July 2016)
''

(1926—2016) — Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts, 1997.

Others

Laksmikanta Roy Choudhury Sabarna Roy Choudhury was a Zamindar family of Mughal Bengal. They controlled significant swathes of territory, including what would later become Kolkata, prior to the sale of zamindari rights in 1698 to the East India Company. Zamindari E ...

(1570—1649), Brahmin scholar, social and political figure * David Hare (1775—1842), philanthropist and founder of many important and prestigious educational institutions of Kolkata. * William Carey (1761—1834), missioner and reformer. * Alexander Duff (1806—1878), missioner and reformer. *

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar CIE ( bn, ঈশ্বর চন্দ্র বিদ্যাসাগর; 26 September 1820 – 29 July 1891), born Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay, was an Indian educator and social reformer of the nineteenth century. ...

(1820—1891), philosopher, academic, writer, translator, entrepreneur, social reformer and philanthropist, a key figure of the

Bengal Renaissance Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

. *

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, Indian independence activist, journalist & scholar who served as the first president of Republic of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian Nationa ...

(1884—1963), politician, the first President of India (from 1950 to 1962). *

Samik Bandyopadhyay Samik Bandyopadhyay (Bengali: শমীক বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়; born 1940) is a Kolkata-based critic of Indian art, theatre and film. His father Sunit Kumar Banerjee did his Ph.D. on Elizabethan lyrics under Sir H.&nb ...

(b.1940), critic of Indian art, theatre and film. * Gayatri Chakravorty Spiv (b. 1942), scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. *

Tanmoy Bhattacharya Tanmoy Bhattacharya is a former Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational a ...

(b. 1958), politician. * Romita Ray (b. 1970), art historian. *

Manny Elias Manny Elias (born 21 February 1953) is an Indian drummer and record producer of British descent. He is notable for being the original drummer with Tears for Fears during the 1980s. Originally a member of the rock band Interview from Bathford, ...

(b. 1953), drummer, record producer, original drummer of the

Tears for Fears Tears for Fears are an English pop rock band formed in Bath, England, in 1981 by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, Tears for Fears were associated with the new wav ...

References

{{Kolkata topics *