Bratya receives Dinabandhu Mitra Puraskar

Bratya Basu won the prestigious Dinabandhu Mitra Puroskar, the highest honour in theatre conferred by the Paschim Banga Natya Akademi, the Department of Information & Cultural Affairs, at Rabindra Sadan on Tuesday. The evening also marked the beginning of the 19th West Bengal Theatre Festival (Natyamela). While accepting the award, Bratya donated the entire prize money of worth Rs 50,000 to the Chief Minister Relief Fund. While talking to us, the elated thespian said, “I am very happy. Recognitions like these encourage us to work more.”

Earlier, legends like Manmatha Roy, Utpal Dutt, Shova Sen,

Tripti Mitra

and Soumitra Chatterjee received the award. Meanwhile, Bratya is also gearing up to direct a new film. With the working title Byabadhan, the film will go on the floors in February 2020. Though the cast is not finalised yet, the team has spoken to Abir Chatterjee and Bangladeshi actor Mosharraf Karim.

Based on two short stories, Baba

Howa

and Swami Howa, Bratya has developed the script of the film along with Ujjwal Chattopadhyay. “It talks about the distance created in relationships and hence, it is called Byabadhan,” explained Ujjwal. In 2003, Bratya Basu debuted in film direction with Rāstā.

An accomplished actor that he is, Bratya has recently worked with Indranil Roychowdhury and Aditya Bikram Sengupta in their respective films.