Rituparno Ghosh stood out to be the pallbearer of a legacy of Bengali Cinema: Aneek Chaudhuri

When he broke into the film world, the state of Bengali cinema was all but dead. The evergreen Uttam-Suchitra days were gone, cheap remakes of Southern films were popular, the music was abysmal, so the educated Bengali people started to avoid the Bengali movie theatres. This is when Rituparno Ghosh launched his career with ‘Heerer Angti’ and ‘Unishe April’. And the ‘Bangali bhadraloks’ were enthralled.They were more than happy to flood back to the theatres. Bengali cinema had found a new lifeline. And the rest is history.
It’s been 7 years since his demise, yet he seems to be present in his absence. Wishes are pouring in on his birthday today on social media. To know how Rituparno still inspires young filmmakers we spoke to Independent filmmaker Aneek Chaudhuri whose recent films ‘Cactus’ and ‘Katti Nrittam’ have created quite a buzz due to some unique concepts.

“Rituparno Ghosh is an auteur who did not try to don the hat of an activist. Right from his first film, Hirer Angti to his first released film, April 19, the director has focused on bondings and relationship, irrespective of its nature. This actually provides a certain sense of equity to homosexuality by not creating it as something different. We all are inspired from him, his storytelling, his art, his lyrics, he stood out to be the pallbearer of a legacy of Bengali Cinema, much untold,” explained Aneek while sharing his thoughts on how Rituparno Ghosh continues to influence filmmakers.