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Bengalis in Bollywood

Bengalis have always been proud of their tradition, culture and intellect. It is true that there is no dearth of talent in Bengal. But people in Bengal also possess the tendency to over indulge in the feel good factor and in the process become cocooned in their shells. From the time I started understanding concepts like intellect and culture, I found that Bengalis are of the opinion that people in other parts of India are not able to judge them without bias, though every other talent comes out from the soil of Bengal or are Bengalis settled in other states.

Be it in literature, art, music, direction, we can go on citing examples of gems which Bengal has produced. From Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore to  freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose to the Oscar winning Satyajit Ray, the list is endless.  Though they were renowned all across the globe, yet for some reason or the other, their talent was never given its due worth in India. Just like any other Bengali, as I started to grow up, the idea that Bengalis are not properly recognized in India started creeping in my mind. With so many years of nurturing, the idea has become an integral part of me now.

However, in recent times, I feel the trend has changed a bit. For instance, if we take the case of Bollywood cinema and music, we can see that from the beginning itself, the Bengalis have carved a niche for themselves. We have had movie directors like Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee creating masterpieces like Golmaal, Chupke Chupke, Anand, Abhimaan, Rajnigandha, Khoobsuraat, Ek Ruka Hua Faisla and many more. We still have a bunch of talented directors like Pradeep Sarkar, Anurag Basu and Shoojit Sircar making movies worth watching. The Bollywood music scene has been blessed by names like Salil Chowdhury, Hemant Kumar, Manna Dey, Kumar Sanu, Pankaj Mullick, Bappi Lahiri, Shreya Ghosal notwithstanding geniuses like S.D.Burman, R.D.Burman and Kishore Kumar, who boast of the Bengali lineage. The most prominent addition to this list, according to me is Bonnie Chakraborty.

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