Manoj Mitra

Manoj Mitra, who touches 76 years this year, was born in a small village called Dhulihar of Satkhira, Khulna in Bangladesh on 22 December 1938. Being a playwright, director, producer, actor, theater organizer and having written more than thousands of plays and over forty scripts for television and radio, he still stands firm in the artistic society. Since a young age, he was an involved participant in Bengali theater and stage plays whereby he pursued his creative passion for more than five decades. He first started his schooling at home as his father was always moving around for his job. His real school life began after partition took place, in a school near Basirhaat. During his childhood, he was always attracted to plays and jatras which used to occur in the courtyard especially for Durga puja. But he did not take any step towards theater and acting till college.

He joined the Scottish Church College and graduated in 1958 with an honors in Philosophy. By that time he started writing for plays and had appeared in various magazines. After his first degree, he studied further for masters. He joined the University of Calcutta for a master in Philosophy and afterward went ahead for his doctorate. He worked as a Philosophy teacher in Suri Vidyasagar College and simultaneously joined the drama department at the Rabindra Bharati University. He started writing, acting and directing the plays at the Sundaram group and in a short time, Manoj Mitra became one of the leading play writers of Bengal. Till now, he has delivered hundreds of excellent and much praised plays such as: Alok nanda putra, jal sajano, aswathama chokhe and many others. Many of his plays were translated into different languages.

He is also the winner of several awards and honors such as the Sangeet Natak Academy Award for Best Playwright (1985). Then he won the Calcutta University Award for Best Playwright (1986), in 1983 1989 for West Bengal State Government Award for Best Playwright. In 2005 he won the Asiatic Society’s Gold Medal, in 2011 he won Munir Chowdhury Award from Bangladesh Theatre Society and the recent one is Dinabandhu Puraskar (25 May 2012). Apart from writing plays, Mitra was very much involved in the cinema world. He worked with various directors such as: Basu Chatterjee Basu Chatterjee is an Indian screenplay writer and >> Read More... , Tarun Majumdar A legendary director who has created the most exce >> Read More... , Shakti Samanta Shakti Samanta, an eminent Indian film director, w >> Read More... and Goutam Ghose Gautam Ghose is a special man. He has won numerous >> Read More... . His most appreciated role was in the film Banchharamer Bataan by Tapan Sinha   Tapan Sinha, one of the foremost Indian directo >> Read More... and also for his performance in Ghare Baire and Ganashatru by Satyajit Ray Biographies reveal bare details about the maverick >> Read More... . Manoj Mitra is still the President of the Paschim Banga Natya Akademi group and Sundaram. He still strives for his passion forming new artists to carry on the Bengali theater.

Mitra Family Tree (Infographic Family Tree)