ওয়াশিংটন বাংলা রেডিও Washington Bangla Radio

Powerful character actor Subrata Dutta - a renowned name in Bengali and Bollywood Cinema in India and Indian film-lovers across the world - recently bagged another "Best Actor" award - this time at the Cairo International Film Festival, 2009 - for Jai Tank directed film Madholal Keep Walking [BUY DVD] co-starring Swara Bhaskar. As you will hear Subrata describing in the interview, in Madholal, he plays the role of a man in Mumbai who has lost a hand and has thus had to extensively shoot with one hand tied to his back, in real locations, sometimes on a hidden camera.

Subrata has previosuly won the "Best Actor" award at the Osian Cinefan Festival 2006 for Subrata Sen directed Bengali film Bibar - Calcutta Unabashed (DVD Release) co-starring Tannishtha Chatterjee, Payel Sarkar, Biswajit Chakraborty, Dulal Lahiri, Kunal Mitra etc.

Madholal Keep Walking has had a limited trial release in Calcutta in August and will be re-released soon on a much larger scale.

A graduate from the elite National School of Drama, New Delhi and Central School of Speech and Drama, London, UK, Subrata has and continues to play lead roles in films in various languages. He is also a renowned stage theater actor.

Subrata Dutta grew up in Bankura district of West Bengal, and in his young days, had little clue that he would become a powerful and internationally acclaimed character acter in films and theater. He studied Zoology at the graduate level and Business Administration at the post graduate level. He then chanced on attending a workshop at the National School of Drama, New Delhi and subsequently applied to study there, and was selected. His subsequent apprenticeship at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London, UK was financed by a scholarship from the Brtish Council in Kolkata.

Subrata Dutta performed various roles in stage theater in Delhi for around 8 years, eventually also playing roles in parallel and art-house films and then lead roles as protagonists and antagonists.

Subrata Dutta is playing a lead role in Ram Gopal Verma directed RAKTA CHARITRA that is expected to have a release date in October 2010. RAKTA CHARITRA will be released in two episodes and in three languages.

After a long string of successful Bengali films featuring Subrata Dutta - Buddhadev Dasgupta's UTTARA (BUY DVD), Kushan Nandy's 88 Antop Hill [BUY VCD], Suman Mukherjee's  Chaturanga (DVD Release), Subrata Sen's Bibar - Calcutta Unabashed (DVD), Arin Pal's Doshta Dosh (BUY DVD), Anjan Das's Achin Pakhi (DVD) and so on, ANTIM SHWASH SUNDAR (Last Breath Beautiful) (BUY DVD) by Kris Allin is now playing to capacity audiences in theaters in Kolkata, featuring Subrata Dutta as Prem Sengupta, Indrani Halder as Vibha, Paran Bandopadhaya as Mystic, Kaushik Banerjee as Sarda, Kunal Padhy as Mehra, Swagata Mukherjee as Alka, Punya Darshan Gupta as Rao, Debdut Ghosh as Patel, Sanjukta Roychowdhury as Anjali, Surangana as Arti and Prakash Sharma as Raghu.

Subrata recently appeared in Achin Pakhi with the young promising actress Manali Dey of Mouri fame from the superhit Bengali TV show Bou Kotha Kao.

Subrata Dutta's other upcoming films include Reema Mukherjee's ARDHANGINI EK ARDHASATYA which is adapted from Rabindranath Tagore's short story GHARE BAIRE (previously made into a film with the same title by Satyajit Ray) where Subrata plays the role of Sandip and appears with Subodh Bhave, Sreelekha Mitra, Manoj Mitra, Reema Lagoo, Varsha Usgaonkar and others. The film is headed to the Berlin International Film Festival.

Subrata Dutta is also appearing in the upcoming film BLIND LANE with Sonali Chowdhury - the film is directed by Amitava Sengupta and is based on the Kamtapur movement.

Listen to Subrata Dutta once again on Washington Bangla Radio. We wish Subrata Dutta all the best and we look forwarding to having him with us on Washington Bangla Radio again.

Akash Adhikari is an acclaimed Nepali film-maker with over 15 popular Nepali movies to his credit. He is the writer-director and lead actor of the eagerly anticipated Nepali movie Kathmandu (2010) with an international cast. Akash talks to Washington Bangla Radio's Arijit Chakraborty in an exclusive, comprehensive and intimate interview about his career and his films. Do not miss the special preview of his next film Suryoday (Sunrise) that Akash talks about in detail exclusively on WBRi.

Kathmandu - with a tag-line of "Anything can happen in this city" - is a contemporary story of the relationship between youngsters and their parents. In some ways, Kathmandu is a universal film about teenagers and the responsibilities of parents in both being protective and inspirational towards developing independence and self-confidence in their teenage children. It may be seen as a film about universal generation gap issues.

Kathmandu is shot in San Fransisco, USA and of course, Nepal using the Red Cinema 4K Camera for the first time in Nepali cinema, and features an international cast and crew. Kathmandu is written and directed by Akash Adhikari and produced by Akash Adhikari and his brother Ben-Nabin Adhikari who lives in New York. The internationmal star cast includes Akash Adhikari, Resh Marhatta, Gauri Malla, Samyukta Rana, Arjun Shrestha, Ben-Nabin Adhikari, Suresh Adhikari, Sangita Chhetri, Sunil Dutt, Subhatra Adhikari and more. The movie introduces newcomer Prapti Ghimire to Nepalese cinema. Ani Choying Dolma and Indian Bollywood singer-actor Sukhwinder Singh make guest appearances in the film.

^{A scene from Kathmandu (2010, Nepali)}
The Nepali film songs have been performed by Indian Bollywood playback singers like Sukhwinder Singh, Aakriti Kankard, Kailash Kher, Sunidhi Chauhan, Adhitya Narayan and Sanjivini. Rahul Pradhan has composed and directed music in Kathmandu and Dirgha Gurung has taken care of cinematography.

Akash Adhikari also talks in depth about his next film Suryoday (Sunrise). That film is about a complex relationship of a woman and multiple husbands. The Nyinba people of Nepal live high in the Himalayan mountains and practice fraternal polyandry - when a woman marries a man, in Nyinban culture, she marries all of her husband's brothers as well. Beneficial aspects of such a custom include preservation of inherited wealth and property without too much fragmenting, while obviously the relationship between the woman and her husbands is fascinating.

Antim Shwash Sundar (English title The Last Breath Beautiful) is a 2010 Kolkata Bengali movie released in theaters in Calcutta today, Aug 20, 2010.

The film stars Subrata Dutta, Indrani Haldar, Paran Bandopadhyay and others. Subrata Dutta has delivered a powerful performance as Prem Sengupta in the film, as posted by Washington Bangla Radio film critiques in our WBRi Kolkata Tube blog.

Debutant writer-director Kris Alin talks exclusively to Arijit Chakraborty on Washington Bangla Radio in a comprehensive, intimate and informal interview that you can listen free online by pressing the play button in the player.

Magic Hour Entertainment's  Egaro - The Immortal XI is an upcoming Bangla movie celebrating the best of Indian soccer (football) and the July 29, 1911 historic victory of the Indian team of Mohun Bagan against the British East Yorkshire Regiment, thus Mohun Bagan lifting the IFA Shield for the first time ever. The film is directed by Arun Roy and produced by Anilava Chatterjee.

EGARO features music by the folk band MOKAM (Mayukh - Mainak) known for their unique and innovative sound rooted in folk and tribal music of Bengal.

Watch a video of and listen to producer Anilabha Chatterjee talking to Subhomoy Mukherjee, WBRi correspondent, in an informal and intimate interview online.

Subhomoy writes:

Anilabho Chatterjee started his career as a journalist. Then he liked to cover the sports, eventually he felt in love with sports and till date, even as a producer of popular television events, he likes to do programs on sports, even the programs with celebrity sports persons.

Tollywood Kolkata Bengali movie actor Prasenjit Chattopadhyay, affectionately called Bumba-da by his huge fan following, is one of the top stars of Bangla cinema for over a quarter of a century. Son of popular hero of yesterday, Biswajeet Chatterjee (buy Biswajit DVD Collection Online), Prosenjit started his career in film at the age of around four with Chotto Jigyasha directed by his dad. Prosenjit's sister Pallavi Chatterjee is also an acclaimed actress.

In this comprehensive, informal and intimate interview, Prosenjit Chatterjee talks to Subhomoy Mukherjee of Washington Bangla Radio about his career in films and Bengali cinema. Do not miss the words of one of the greatest Bengali movie personalities with unbeatable popularity.

Prasenjit Chatterjee lives in Kolkata with his wife, actress Arpita Pal Chatterjee and their son Trishanjit. Arpita has recently re-emerged in Bengali cinema after a gap of several years.

King of commercial / pop Bengali cinema for many years, Prosenjit has matured into a full-fledged character actor powerful enough for challenging roles in parallel and art-house films starting with Rituparno Ghosh's 2003 gem "Choker Bali" (Chokher Bali - A Passion Play Online DVD Release) where he appeared alongside Aishwarya Rai and Raima Sen. His fabulous performance as Kaushik in DOSAR (2007) [BUY DVD] co-starring Konkona Sen earned him a Silver Lotus National Award. He considers the role of Kaushik as the most challenging in his 300 or so films so far.

The 1983 film 'Duti Pata' (1983) saw Prosenjit Chatterjee debut as the hero. The film was a super-hit and launched Prosenjit into super-stardom in Bangla cinema. Other remarkable Prosenjit-starrers include AMAR SANGI (1987) [BUY DVD] with Vijayeta Pandit -  the famous song "Chirodini Aami Je Tomar" still reverberates in Bengali hearts, Tarun Majumdar's Apon Amar Apon (1990), Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s 'Ami, Yaseen Aar Amaar Madhubala' (2007) and many more.

Prosenjit has acted against around 50 heroines and ex-wife and childhood friend Debashree Roy remains his favorite actress to work with. He has appeared with Satabdi Roy in the highest number of films, and has acted with other top Tollywood heroines like Rachana Banerjee (WBRi Interview), Rituparna Sengupta (Interview), Indrani Haldar and his wife Arpita Pal Chatterjee.