- Shakti Samanta
Shakti Samanta ( _bn. শক্তি সামন্ত) (born
January 13 ,1926 inBurdwan ,West Bengal ,British India ) is an Indian director. He graduated in 1944 fromCalcutta University . He joined the film industry in 1948 as an assistant director and worked withGyan Mukherjee ,Satish Nigam andPhani Majumdar .Film career
Samanta Directed first feature film in 1954 and started his own production company, Shakti Films, in 1957. In all, Samanta has directed 43 feature films: including 37
Hindi , and 6 Bengali films. His best known films are: "Howrah Bridge"followed by "China Town ", "Kashmir Ki Kali ", "An Evening in Paris ", Pagal Kahin Ka , Jane Anjaane with Shammi Kapoor and then "Aradhana", "Kati Patang ", "Amar Prem ", "Anuraag ", "Amanush ", "Anurodh ", "Alag Alag", "Anand Ashram", and "Mehbooba ". Samanta is credited for starting the trend of making double version films inHindi and Bengali with "Amanush" in 1974. Samanta also made the first co-produced film betweenIndia andBangladesh in 1984.Shakti managed to ride 2 "star phases" and attempted a 3rd. He was among the directors who worked withShammi Kapoor in the late 50's up to mid 60's when he was a star, then he hitched on early toRajesh Khanna , and gave a number of classics with him like Aradhana ,Kati Patang ,Amar Prem ,Anuraag ,Mehbooba ,Anurodh , Aawaaz ,Hum Dono and Alag Alag and though he tried to get on to the Amitabh star phase, his movies withAmitabh Bachchan were not hits despite Barsat Ki Ek Rat and "The Great Gambler " having all the usual ingredients of his movies - story, cast and plus music by R D Burman.On some of his films, his brother and wife were producers. He also produced some of the films that his son directed. [ [http://www.screenindia.com/old/fullstory.php?content_id=9854 Great Gambler ] ]
Awards and Recognition
Samanta received
Filmfare award s for "Best film" for "Aradhana", "Anuraag" and "Amanush". He has also received several Lifetime Achievement awards and several other awards from Zee and other Indian organizations. Some of his films have been shown at international festivals inBerlin ,Tashkent ,Moscow ,Cairo andBeirut .Samanta was President of the Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association for 5 years, Chairman of the Central Board Of Film Certification for 7 years and was Chairman of the
Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute,Kolkata for 2 years.References
External links
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