Sekhar Das

Sekhar Das (শেখর দাশ; alternately spelled Shekhar Das) is a Bengali film/theatre director, scriptwriter/playwright, actor and producer.

He has three award-winning feature films to his credit.

Resigning from a highly successful corporate career in 1997, Sekhar started his professional career in films and television, although he earned highest reputation as an actor par excellence but preferred writing scripts in the initial stage of his career, one of which, namely, Prohor won the national and International awards.

Soon he took up direction in TV and films.

Directed many mystery thrillers for a leading TV channel, possibly he is the only director internationally known to have adapted great Russian Playwright Anton Chekov's all four classics in Bengali for TV film.

A globe trotter that he has been, Sekhar Das had been associated with a travelogue program for a TV Channel for nearly three years as presenter, writer and director.

This program covered Europe, particularly France and Germany, from Asia, it was Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia.

He served on the juries for different international film festivals, was also jury for the national awards in India, and he was selected as one of the selection committee members for nominating Indian film to Oscar.

Graduating from the University of Calcutta in both science and English literature, Sekhar Das, learned a bit of French from Alliance Francais de Calcutta, keeping his masters in English literature incomplete, Das opted for film studies and appreciation in the Chitrabani (Communication centre of St Xaviers college, Calcutta).

After receiving outstanding certificates in different streams of cinema, Das took serious interest in the Art of Screenplay writing and acting.

He was lucky to learn the art of scripting from the Master screen play writer Jean Claude Carrier.

While working for an insurance company, Sekhar Das somehow lost interest in cinema and concentrated in theatre arts.

He had the rare opportunity to meet and discuss theatre with directors of international repute like Peter Brook, Jerzy Grotowsky, Richard Secchner, Eugenio Barba, and with Indian theatre directors like Habib Tanvir and Badal Sarkar.

He produced and directed dozens of plays some of which are Sophocles' Oedipus, Chekov's Uncle Vanya, Tagore's 'Visarjan' (The sacrifice), Tasher Desh (The land of Cards), Rather Rashi (The rope of the Chariot), Jean-Paul Sartre's 'Condemned of Altona', Arrabal's 'Picnique in the Battlefield', Dario Foe's "Can't pay, Won't pay", Athol Fugard's Road to Mecca, Arnold Weskar's trilogy and many other plays.

He excelled as an actor too and during those days he had the opportunity to meet Indian directors Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Budhhadeb Dasgupta.

From 1997 onwards Sekhar Das left his association with Insurance company to join in the Television and cinema professionally.

From 1997 to 2000 he wrote for award winning television programmes as also wrote for highly popular television series.

He directed short films and long videos during that period.

But in 2000 he decided to quite Television and concentrated on Films:-

He adopted 4 great plays of Anton Chekov,(Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya, The Seagull, Cherry Orchard) for Television with unique idiom of cinematic drama.

Following are the films he made for Theatre release:

Mahulbanir Sereng (Songs of Mahulbani) – script & direction Sekhar Das, surprised many by his remarkable debut with the film 'Mahulbanir Sereng ( The Songs of Mahulbani ), based on the story by Tapan Bandyopadhyay, the film was marked as first ever Bengali film dealt comprehensively with the lives in the forest ( Jangolmohal).

It was a mesmerizing experience for the film lovers for the beautiful songs and its kaleidoscopic view of the nature, the tribal people, their struggle, romance and agony.

Critically acclaimed internationally, Mahulbanir Sreng is now a part of history for its commercial success also.

It was honored in the Indian Panorama and got 11 awards conferred upon by BFJA.

Krantikaal (Critical encounter) – script & direction.

His second film 'Krantikaal' (Critical encounter)based on the story by Prafulla Roy, was again a winner for its novelty of the subject that dealt with the secessionist problems of North-Eastern part of India and its treatment.

Government of India selected the film for international viewing in seven international languages.

This low budget experimental film, a gem of piece was also honored in the Indian Panorama, got two National awards, four International awards and six BFJA awards.

Kaler Rakhal (The Understudy) – script & direction.

By his third film 'Kaler Rakhal' ( The Understudy), an operatic musical which portrayed lives of colourful 'Bahurupis' (The itinerant performers) Das added another entry to his 'outsiders' series, completing the trilogy on 'contemporary social issues'.

Got the 'Best achievement of the year award from BFJA and international awards.By this Das completes his trilogy on contemporary India

Necklace: Film Necklace, Script and direction by Sekhar Das, a bitter-sweet comedy surprised many for Sekhar's control over film media and competency to deal with various subjects.

The film was dedicated to the 50 year celebration of French new wave.

Jogajog (Relationships) based on Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore's classic novel has been his 11th feature film, of which four features were made for television release and others for theatre release.

He also made over 20 short films for Television and umpteen nos of documentaries and travelogue.

Das also teaches film/drama as invited faculty;writes on his subject for different magazines.

He served as a jury in different film festivals in India and abroad.

Running successfully with rave reviews in India, USA and Canada since last September 2011, this has been Das' 1st part of "Kolkata" trilogy.

'Nayanchampar dinratri' (The tale of Nayanchampa): Story, script, direction by Sekhar Das, is a compassionate human document connecting two poles of our contemporary society -Rural and Urban.