Basanta Choudhury (also Chowdhury; 5 May 1928 – 20 June 2000) was an Indian actor in Bengali and Hindi films. He worked with directors Asit Sen, Rajen Tarafdar, Ajay Kar and Bijay Bose, often in leading roles.[1] He is a former Sheriff of Kolkata.
Choudhury's collection of Kashmiri and Persianshawls were enviable. Director Satyajit Ray admired those collections and used for his masterpieces.
Birth and childhood
Basanta Chowdhury was born into an affluent KayasthaZamindar Datta Chowdhury family of Andul, Howrah.[2] In the circa year of 1886 AD, his great-great forefather Apurba Krishna Dutta Chaudhuri discontinued with the surname 'Dutta' and moved from his ancestral place Andul to Nagpur to practice law. He later became the Law Lecturer in the Morris College (the present-day Vasantrao Naik Government Institute of Arts and Social Sciences (VNGIASS)). His son was Phani Bhusan Chaudhuri, whose son Shiddhish Chandra Chowdhury. Shiddhish and Kamala Devi had two sons – Basanta & Prasanta. Both of them grew up in Nagpur. Basanta graduated from Morris college. In 1945 AD he completed his Matriculation Examination from Deena Nath High School Nagpur. After shifting to Kolkata, Chowdhury stayed in Ranikuthi in Tollygunge.[3]
He was a numismatist i.e. an expert collector of Ganesha idols, rare coins, paper currency and was a collector of Kashmiri and Persian shawls.[4]
His first film was Mahaprasthaner Pathe by director Kartik Chattopadhay in 1952. Some of his memorable films are, Bhagaban Shri Krishna Chaitanya, Jadu Bhatta, Andhare Alo, Deep Jwele Jaai with Suchitra Sen, Anushtoop Chhanda, Abhaya O Srikanta, Raja Rammohan Roy, Diba Ratrir Kabya, Devi Chaudhurani. He was also involved with amateur theater and radio.
Basanta Chowdhury (left) and Uttam Kumar (right) together sharing a screen in an event.
Awards
In 1965, actor Chowdhury was awarded the Best Actor Prize for his film "Raja Rammohan" by B.F.J.A. In 1996, he also received Bangla Stage Centenary Star Theater award from Calcutta University. He had also acted in several Hindi films.
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