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List of notable people from Kolkata. The city of Kolkata has been regarded as the cultural capital of India.[1]
Writers, Including poets[edit | edit source]
- S Wajid Ali
- Syed Mujtaba Ali
- Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay
- Kumudini Basu
- Suchitra Bhattacharya
- Sukanta Bhattacharya
- Buddhadev Bose
- Amiya Chakravarty
- Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
- Shakti Chattopadhyay
- Nirad C. Chaudhuri
- Pramatha Chowdhury
- Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury
- Dinesh Das
- Jibanananda Das
- Henry Louis Vivian Derozio
- Bishnu Dey
- Michael Madhusudan Dutta
- Satyendranath Dutta
- Sudhindranath Dutta
- Sunil Gangopadhyay
- Joy Goswami
- Gulzar
- Asit Kumar Haldar
- Amelia Horne
- Kazi Nazrul Islam
- Sisir Kumar Maitra
- Binoy Majumdar
- Mohitolal Majumdar
- Samaresh Majumdar (b.1944)
- Arun Mitra
- Dinabandhu Mitra
- Premendra Mitra
- Mimi Mondal, First Indian English writer who nominated for Hugo Award.
- Dhan Gopal Mukerji
- Shobhanasundari Mukhopadhyay, Shovana Devi Tagore, folklorist
- Subhas Mukhopadhyay
- Purnendu Patri
- Christopher Raja
- Annada Shankar Ray
- Dwijendralal Ray
- Sukumar Ray
- Tarapada Ray
- Samar Sen
- Badal Sircar, dramatist and theatre director
- Srijato
- Rabindranath Tagore, 1st non-European to win a Nobel Prize
Philosophers and religious teachers[edit | edit source]
The most famous religious figure of Kolkata is Mother Teresa. Others are (in order of surname):
- Bhakti Hridaya Bon (1901–1982)
- Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Goswami (1898–1968)
- Boro Maa, (1918–2019)
- A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977), founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)
- Ramakrishna (1836–1886)
- Ram Mohan Roy (1772–1833)
- Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati (1874–1837), founder of Gaudiya Math
- Keshab Chandra Sen (1838–1884)
- Debendranath Tagore (1817–1905)
- Bhaktivinoda Thakur (1838–1914)
- Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902)
- Paramhansa Yogananda (1893-1952)
Engineers and scientists[edit | edit source]
- James Atkinson (1780–1852), surgeon, artist and Persian scholar
- Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay (born 1968), computer scientist
- R. D. Banerji, archeologist
- Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858–1937), Bengali polymath, physicist, biologist, biophysicist, botanist and archaeologist
- Upendranath Brahmachari
- Bikas K Chakrabarti (born 1952), theoretical physicist and econophysicist
- Asima Chatterjee (1917–2006), chemist
- Debendra Mohan Bose (1875–1975), physicist
- Satyendra Nath Bose (1894–1974), physicist and polymath from Bengal
- Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay (1890–1977), Bengali linguist
- Barun De (1932–2013), historian
- Brajendranath De (1852–1932), civil servant and orientalist
- Anil Kumar Gain (1919–1978), mathematician and statistician
- J.B.S. Haldane (1892–1964), British-Indian scientist, known for his work in the study of physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics
- Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1893–1972), Bengali scientist and applied statistician
- R.C. Majumdar (1884–1980), historian
- P. J. Marshall (born 1933), historian
- Ujjwal Maulik (born 1965), computer scientist
- Subhash Mukhopadhyay (1931–1981), physician
- Sisir Kumar Mitra (1890–1963), physicist
- Shehla Pervin, Indian scientist and scholar
- Rajat Kanta Ray, historian
- Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri (1922–2005), physicist, known for his research in general relativity and cosmology
- Tapan Raychaudhuri (1926–2014), historian
- Tapati Guha-Thakurta (born 1957), historian
- Sukanta Chaudhuri (born 1950), literary scholar
- Ananda Lal (born 1955), academic and theatre scholar
- C. R. Rao (1920–2023), mathematician and statistician
- Prafulla Chandra Roy (1861–1944), Bengali chemist, educationist, historian, industrialist and philanthropist
- Meghnad Saha (1893–1956), astrophysicist
- Sir Jadunath Sarkar (1870–1958), historian
- Sumit Sarkar (born 1939), historian
- Susobhan Sarkar (1900–1982), historian
- Tapan Kumar Sarkar (1948–2021), electrical engineer
- Ashoke Sen (born 1956), theoretical physicist
- Sukumar Sen, historian of Bengali literature
Gallantry Awards winners[edit | edit source]
- Flight Lieutenant Suhas Biswas
- Squadron Leader Madhavendra Banerji
Bankers and business people[edit | edit source]
- Radhe Shyam Agarwal
- Amar Kumar Bera
- P. C. Bhattacharya, 7th Governor, Reserve Bank of India
- Aditya Vikram Birla
- Radhe Shyam Goenka
- R. P. Goenka (RPG Group)
- Sanjiv Goenka
- Chandra Shekhar Ghosh (founder of Bandhan Bank)
- Rajat Gupta (b. 1948)
- Ellis Jacob (founder of Cineplex Entertainment)
- Lakshmi Mittal
- Tiny Rowland (chairman of Lonrho from 1962 to 1993)
- Prannoy Roy (b.1949)
- Nalini Ranjan Sarkar
- Mutty Lall Seal
Freedom fighters[edit | edit source]
- Sri Aurobindo
- Maulana Azad
- Benoy Basu
- Khudiram Bose
- Rash Behari Bose
- Subhas Chandra Bose
- Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee
- Chittaranjan Das
- Jatindra Nath Das
- Sisir Kumar Ghosh
- Badal Gupta
- Dinesh Gupta
- Basanti Devi Haldar
- Matangini Hazra
- Bagha Jatin
- Bipin Chandra Pal
- Sudhamoy Pramanick
- Bidhan Chandra Roy
- Ashoke Kumar Sen
Performing arts[edit | edit source]
Artists[edit | edit source]
- Sukanta Basu
- Jogen Chowdhury
- Anil Kumar Dutta
- Gerry Judah
- Shanu Lahiri[2]
- William Laidlay
- Paresh Maity
- Ganesh Pyne
- Devajyoti Ray
- Jamini Roy
- Sudip Roy
- Samir Roychoudhury
- Paritosh Sen
Directors[edit | edit source]
- Nitin Bose
- Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
- Buddhadeb Dasgupta
- Anik Dutta
- Kaushik Ganguly
- Ritwik Ghatak
- Gautam Ghose
- Rituparno Ghosh
- Sujoy Ghosh
- Atiul Islam
- Farha Khatun
- Tarun Majumdar
- Hrishikesh Mukherjee
- Kamaleshwar Mukherjee
- Shiboprosad Mukherjee
- Srijit Mukherji
- Satyajit Ray, winner of Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1992 and considered among the greatest director of film history.
- Bimal Roy
- Shakti Samanta
- Aparna Sen
- Avijit Sen
- Mrinal Sen
- Tapan Sinha
Cinema actors[edit | edit source]
- Pt. Debshankar Haldar, actor
- Nabadwip Haldar, actor and comedian
- Goutam Halder, actor and director
- Uttam Kumar, actor, singer, composer, producer, director and screenwriter
- Kaushik Ganguly, actor, director and screenwriter
- Koushik Sen, actor and TV personality
- Mithun Chakraborty, actor, dancer and TV personality
- Rabi Ghosh, actor and comedian
- Ranjit Mallick, actor
- Dhritiman Chaterji, actor
- Tapen Chatterjee, actor
- Barun Chanda
- Pahari Sanyal
- N. Viswanathan
- Chhabi Biswas
- Karuna Bannerjee
- Koel Mallick, actress and daughter of Ranjit Mallick
- Anil Chatterjee
- Arpita Chatterjee, actress and TV personality; wife of Prosenjit Chatterjee
- Subir Banerjee
- Roopa Ganguly
- Uma Dasgupta
- Saswata Chatterjee
- Tarun Kumar
- Anup Kumar
- Ashok Kumar
- Bhanu Bandopadhyay
- Biswajit Chatterjee, actor, producer, director and politician
- Prosenjit Chatterjee, actor, producer and TV personality; son of Biswajit Chatterjee
- Debashree Roy, actress, dancer, choreographer, animal rights activist and politician; ex-wife of Prosenjit Chatterjee
- Jahor Roy
- Kanan Devi
- Sagarika Mukherjee
- Swastika Mukherjee
- Razzak
- Dev, actor, singer, producer, screenwriter and politician
- Jeet, actor, producer and TV personality
- Ruma Guha Thakurta
- Tapas Paul
- Mahua Roy Choudhury
- Mirza Abbas Ali
- Suchitra Sen
- Antara Biswas, actress
- Aparna Sen, actress, filmmaker and scriptwriter
- Moonmoon Sen
- Riddhi Sen, actor
- Riya Sen, actress
- Raima Sen, actress
- Reema Sen, actress
- Rituparna Sengupta, actress
- Omar Sani
- Victor Banerjee, actor
- Moushumi Chatterjee
- Parambrata Chatterjee
- Konkona Sen Sharma, actress and filmmaker
- Varsha Ashwathi
- Abhishek Chatterjee
- Tathagata Mukherjee
- Monali Thakur, singer and actress
- Yash Dasgupta, actor, producer and TV personality
- Bonny Sengupta, actor and politician
- Nusrat Jahan, actress, politician and former Miss Kolkata 2010; wife of Yash Dasgupta
- Mimi Chakraborty, actress, producer and politician
- Anirban Bhattacharya
- Sayani Gupta, actress
- Sayantani Ghosh, actress and TV personality
- Sayak Chakraborty
- Sulakshana Pandit, singer and actress
- Vijayta Pandit, singer and actress
Theatre figures[edit | edit source]
- Rudraprasad Sengupta, actor and director
- Sambhu Mitra, actor and director
- Girishchandra Ghosh father of Bengali theatre
- Chitra Sen
- Koushik Sen
Photographers[edit | edit source]
Composers[edit | edit source]
- Jeet Ganguly
- Kabir Suman
- Salil Chowdhury
- Rahul Dev Burman
- Shashi Preetam
- Sachin Dev Burman
- Bappi Lahiri
- Shantanu Moitra
- Pritam
- Hemanta Mukhopadhyay
- Rupam Islam
- Nachiketa Ghosh
- Sudhin Dasgupta
- Anupam Roy
- Anjan Dutt
- Jaimin Rajani
- Pankaj Mullick
- Anil Biswas
- Nachiketa Ghosh
- Shyamal Mitra
Hindustani classical singers/maestros[edit | edit source]
- Ustad Allauddin Khan
- Ustad Ali Akbar Khan
- Pandit Ravi Shankar
- Ananda Shankar
- Ustad Vilayat Khan
- Pandit Jasraj
- Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan
- Pandit Bhimsen Joshi
- Rashid Khan
- Naina Devi[3]
- Pandit Nikhil Banerjee
- Ustad Amjad Ali Khan
- Ustad Bahadur Khan
- Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty
- Kaushiki Chakraborty
Hindustani classical instrumentalists[edit | edit source]
Other singers[edit | edit source]
- Dwijendra Lal Roy
- Suprakash Chaki
- K. C. Dey
- Gauhar Jan
- Pankaj Mullick
- Kanan Devi
- Kanika Bandyopadhyay
- Suchitra Mitra
- Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay
- Manabendra Mukhopadhyay
- Manna Dey
- Kishore Kumar
- Sandhya Mukhopadhyay
- Geeta Dutt
- Debabrata Biswas
- Begum Akhtar
- Usha Uthup
- Indrani Sen
- Ruma Guha Thakurta
- Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta
- Srikanta Acharya
- Anwesshaa
- Suman Chatterjee
- Sachin Dev Burman
- Anjan Dutt
- Rupam Islam
- Prashant Tamang
- Shayan Chowdhury Arnob
Contemporary Bollywood musicians[edit | edit source]
- Abhijeet Bhattacharya, playback singer
- Anupam Roy (b.1982), singer-songwriter
- Alka Yagnik (b. 1966), playback singer
- Arijit Singh (b. 1987), singer, music producer, recordist and music programmer
- Babul Supriyo (b. 1970), playback singer, live performer, television host, actor and politician
- Kumar Sanu (b. 1957), playback singer
- Pritam (b. 1971)
- Sagarika (b. 1970), playback singer and actress
- Shreya Ghoshal (b. 1984), playback singer
- Shaan (b. 1972), playback singer and actor
Dancers[edit | edit source]
Prominent dancers of the city include:
- Uday Shankar and his wife Amala Shankar
- Mamata Shankar
- Tanushree Shankar
- Ananda Shankar
- Sadhana Bose
- Sharmila Biswas[4]
- Shila Mehta, classical dance artist, choreographer, teacher, and composer
- Rani Karnaa
- Rajeswari Vaidyanathan, Tedx Speaker, trainer, performer and choreographer
Magicians[edit | edit source]
Kolkata is the magic capital of India and has produced internationally famous magicians and performers, including:
Sports[edit | edit source]
Nobel laureates[edit | edit source]
Six Nobel Prize winners have been associated with Kolkata:
- Sir Ronald Ross (1857–1932) – Medicine, 1902
- Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) – Literature, 1913; first Asian to win the Nobel Prize
- Mother Teresa (1910–1997) – Peace, 1979
- Amartya Sen (born 1933) – Economics, 1998
- Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee (born 1961) – Economics, 2019
- CV Raman – Physics
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners[edit | edit source]
The Ramon Magsaysay Award, sometimes called "Asia's Nobel Prize", is given "to perpetuate his example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society." Kolkata winners include:
- Mother Teresa (1910–1997) – Peace and International Understanding, 1962
- Satyajit Ray (1921–1992) – Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts, 1967
- Gour Kishore Ghosh (1923–2000) – Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts, 1981
- Mahasweta Devi (1926–2016) – Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts, 1997
Others[edit | edit source]
- Samik Bandyopadhyay (born 1940), critic of Indian art, theatre and film
- Tanmoy Bhattacharya (born 1958), politician
- William Carey (1761–1834), missioner and reformer
- Laksmikanta Roy Choudhury (1570–1649), Brahmin scholar, social and political figure
- Alexander Duff (1806—1878), missioner and reformer
- Manny Elias (born 1953), drummer, record producer; original drummer of the Tears for Fears
- David Hare (1775–1842), philanthropist and founder of many important and prestigious educational institutions of Kolkata
- Rajendra Prasad (1884–1963), politician, the first president of India (from 1950 to 1962)
- Romita Ray (born 1970), art historian
- Radhika Roy (born 1948), journalist
- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 1942), scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic
- Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820–1891), philosopher, academic, writer, translator, entrepreneur, social reformer and philanthropist; key figure of the Bengal Renaissance
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ naiya, Arijit; Anita Desai (2003). Calcutta: a cultural and literary history. Signal Books. p. xiv. ISBN 978-1-902669-59-5.
- ↑ "Shanu Lahiri dead". The Telegraph (Calcutta). Archived from the original on 7 February 2013. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
- ↑ "A Tale Of Two Women: In search of their own songs". The Telegraph. 11 March 2012. Archived from the original on 29 July 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
- ↑ "Katha Kavya Abhinaya". Sangeet Natak Akademi. 2011. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
