Debaki Bose

Today is the birth anniversary of #DebakiBose, film director, writer, and actor. He was born on November 25, 1898, in Akalposh, now in East Burdwan, India. He died on November 17, 1971, in Calcutta, India. Debaki Bose was known for bringing new ideas about sound and music to Indian movies. He started working with British Dominion Films, then with Barua Pictures, and joined New Theatres in 1932. In 1945, he started his own company, Debaki Productions. His movies were very popular, and some were even released in Hindi, Marathi, and Tamil.

His film “Chandidas” in 1932 was the first Indian movie to have background music. Another movie, “Seeta” from 1934, was the first Indian film shown at an international festival, the Venice Film Festival, where it won a special award. This made him the first Indian director to win an international award. “Sagar Sangamey” in 1959 was nominated for a Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and won a National Film Award in India. He also made a special documentary, “Arghya,” in 1961 about the poet Rabindranath Tagore.

Debaki Bose received many awards, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Film Direction in 1957 and the Padma Shri in Arts in 1958. However, he never received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, a major honor in Indian cinema.