Rituparno Ghosh

Rituparno Ghosh
Rituparno Ghosh at MAMI festival
Born	(1963-08-31)31 August 1963 Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Died	30 May 2013(2013-05-30) (aged 49) Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Nationality	Indian
Other names	Ritu
Occupation	Film director, actor, writer and lyricist
Years active	1992–2013
Notable work	Unishe April Dahan Raincoat The Last Lear

Rituparno Ghosh (31 August 1963 – 30 May 2013) was an Indian film director, actor, writer and lyricist in the Bengali cinema. After pursuing a degree in economics he started his career as a creative artist at an advertising agency. In 1992, his debut film Hirer Angti released. In 1994, his next film Unishe April released which won National Film Award for Best Feature Film.

Ghosh was a self-professed Satyajit Ray fan and inspired other filmmakers like Mithaq Kazimi who adapted Ghosh's film Raincoat in English. In his career spanning almost two decades, he won 12 National and many International awards. Ghosh died on 30 May 2013 in Kolkata after a heart attack.

His unreleased Bengali movie named Taak Jhaank was honoured and released at the 19th Kolkata International Film Festival.

Rituparno Ghosh was born in a Bengali Hindu family on 31 August 1963 in Kolkata. His father, Sunil Ghosh, was a documentary film maker and painter. He completed his schooling at South Point High School, and earned a degree in economics from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

He was one of the few openly gay figures in Indian cinema and was considered an icon of the LGBT community of India.

Before his career in film, Rituparno Ghosh worked at the Response India advertising agency and became known as an especially effective copywriter in Kolkata. He was particularly noted for composing succinct, appealing one-liners and slogans for ad campaigns in Bengali during the 1980s. At the time, the trend in Kolkata was to translate all-India advertisement campaigns originally composed in English and Hindi into Bengali. Ghosh won recognition for his ability to initiate campaigns in Bengali. Among his noted ad campaigns were 'Sharad Samman' and 'Bongo Jiboner Ango' for the antiseptic ointment, Boroline, and others for Frooti, the largest-selling mango drink in India. Some commentators noted that his power to appeal to consumers through ad campaigns helped make his films appealing to wider audiences, particularly to middle class Bengalis. In 1990, Rituparno got his first break in documentary film when his own agency, Tele-Response, a member of the Response family of companies, was commissioned to make a documentary on Vande Mataram for Doordarshan.