Swapan Saha

One of the most successful film directors in the Kolkata film industry, Swapan Saha, reigned the industry during the 1990s and 2000s, having made more than 100 films. The most notable movies in his career include Bhai Amar Bhai in 1996, Baba Keno Chakar (1998), Guru in 2003, followed by Agni in 2004, and later Hungama (2006) and Golmaal (2008). Swapan made his directorial debut with Bedenir Prem (1992), a movie about a King's son who gets lost when he was a kid, and is brought up by a group of snake charmers. After being found in adulthood, he finds it difficult to adjust to the luxurious life of his King father. It starred Chiranjit, Lily Chakraborty, Nimu Bhowmick, Shakuntala Barua, Anju Ghosh and Soukat Akbar in the lead roles. In the following years, he was the filmmaker for movies like Biswas Abiswas in 1994, Sujan Sakhi and Naginkanya in 1995, but Bhai Amar Bhai in 1996 turned out to be one of the biggest films of his career. Starring Prosenjit Chatterjee, Abhishek Chatterjee and Anushree Das in the lead role, the film went on to become one of the biggest successes of Bengali cinema. The movie is a story of three siblings who run away from a murderous zamindar after he kills their father. The three grow up to take revenge of their father's murder. It was the first Bengali film to cross a collection of Rs. 1 crore at the box office. Swapan's next popular film Bakul Priya (1997), which again starred Prosenjit in the lead role opposite Satabdi Roy, was the story of adolescent love gone awry in adulthood, and the film turned out to be quite successful commercially. The director's Baba Keno Chakar in 1998 was the story of a father whose son abandons him when he needs him the most. The son not only refuses to stand by his father, but also makes him a slave in his own family. This movie had Prosenjit, Rituparna Sengupta and Abdur Razzak star in the lead roles, and is one among Swapan's most loved films. Then came the director's Guru Shishya in 2001, which starred the legendary Soumitra Chatterjee in the role of a music guru Shankar Maharaj. Guru Shishya revolves around a guru who quits teaching music as his students do not follow his instructions, but Kishore (Prosenjit) starts working as a domestic worker in his house, on the insistence of the Guru's daughter, just to learn music. After Shankar Maharaj comes to know of his daughter's plan and also that the two have fallen in love, he asks Kishore to break their relationship as a token of gratitude to his teaching. The director continued with films like Sabuj Saathi in 2003, Coolie and Annaye Atyachar in 2004, and Debi in 2005, which were liked by audiences.