Amartya Bhattacharyya is a filmmaker, writer and artist from eastern India. He was awarded the Silver Lotus for the Best Cinematography in non-feature film at the 63rd National Film Awards by the president of India for his fantasy documentary 'Benaras-the unexplored attachments'. His second feature film 'Khyanikaa - The Lost Idea' featured as the only Odia film in the Indian Panorama section of 48th International Film Festival of India 2017. He was awarded the State film awards in Best Editing category for Khyanikaa - The Lost Idea at the 29th Odisha State Film Awards, conferred by the Government of Odisha. Amartya has also won around twenty international awards as a director, writer, cinematographer, and editor. He is an independent film director, a surreal poet, writer, actor, editor, recitation artist, painter, lyricist, photographer and a cinematographer. Amartya's art works are mostly surreal, dark in concept, and psychoanalytic in nature. He himself tags his films as 'Phychodrama'.
Personal life
Amartya Bhattacharyya was born in a Bengali Hindu family on 21 August 1987 in Kolkata. He is a B.Tech graduate in Information Technology from Techno India College of Technology in 2009. He also works in a multinational IT company as a Technology Lead. Though born in a Hindu family, he is a non-religious person, who draws inspiration from various religions and ideologies. He is an apolitical person, and a strong critic of his socio-political environment. Amartya's entry to the world of art was through an artist in Kolkata, Shri Siddhartha Mukherjee, who was the art teacher in his school 'The Modern Academy' where he studied for ten years till the completion of his secondary education. It was under his guidance that Amartya started experimenting with art forms at a very tender age, and developed a habit of challenging the conventions. Amartya also performed on stage for the first time at the age of six. Thereafter, he keenly pursued his interest in acting on stage throughout his school life. He was also a passionate cricketer at 'The Sunil Gavaskar Foundation for Cricket in Bengal'.
Film career
'Capital I', Amartya's debut feature film happens to be the first independent feature film of Odisha. It was officially selected in competition among six films at the 3rd South Asian Alternative Film Festival Paris in February 2015, 20th International Film Festival of Kerala 2015, Delhi International Film Festival 2015, 8th Bengaluru International Film Festival 2016, 11th International Film Festival of Thrissur 2016, 11th Habitat Film Festival and some other festivals. It is the first Indian film to be acquired by the Italy-based sales and distribution company ‘The Open Reel’. The film is being broadcast through the Poland-based TV channel ‘Filmbox Arthouse’. Amartya's second feature film 'Khyanikaa - The Lost Idea' screened at around 30 international film festivals and across 14 countries. He won the state award for the Best Editing for Khyanikaa at the 29th Odisha State Film awards 2019. He also won the Honorary Jury Mention award for the film at Noida International Film Festival.After making two feature films 'Capital I' and 'Khyanikaa' in Odia, he made his third feature film 'Runanubandha - The HE without HIM' in his mother tongue, Bengali and shot in the city he was born and brought up in - Kolkata. The film was one of the three Indian films to be selected in the International competition of 24th Kolkata International Film Festival 2018, followed by official selections at around 20 international film festivals. Runanubandha was the only Indian feature film at the prestigious 41st Moscow International Film Festival 2019. Before making his debut feature film 'Capital I', Amartya had made few short films. His shots were a part of several international film festivals across the world, and bagged a number of awards in all categories. Overall, Amartya's films have been a part of over 130 international film festivals.
Other activities
Apart from films, Amartya is also the author of two books – 'Ekush ' and 'Shatarupa' which are compilations of his poems on love, death and the dark sides of human nature. The books were launched at the Kolkata International Book Fair in 2011 and 2012 respectively. His poems have also been published in several compilations and he was a regular writer/poet for a former weekly Bengali magazine named 'Anahoto'.
