Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival


Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival is a Bengali film festival in the city of Hyderabad and is being organized annually since 2014. The venue of the festival is the Prasad Film Preview Labs, Hyderabad. The first edition of the film festival was held in the year 2014. It is the only curated Bengali film festival in India.
The festival is organized by a Hyderabad-based registered Bengali group- Bengalis in Hyderabad. The fourth edition of the HBFF was held from 30 June to 2 July 2017. The fourth edition of the festival screened eight Bengali movies, along with two Telugu movies. All the seasons of the festival were attended by the directors, casts and crews of the movies which were screened, and there are several panel discussions and Q&A sessions with directors organized.

History of Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival (HBFF)

5th Edition of Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival (HBFF), 2018

The fifth edition of Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival was held from 21 June to 24 June 2018. The initiative of the cultural exchange programme was introduced last year. As the part of cultural exchange apart from Bengali movies, premier screening of a Marathi movie was also organised along with 12 other Bengali movies.
The fifth year saw the introduction of short film and documentary section rightly named SEED. The competitive short film section saw more than 50 entries coming from various languages including Sinhalese, Bangla and other Indian languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malyalam and Bengali. After much deliberation by the Jury, 17 short films were selected and screened. The short film and documentary section was held at the Ramanaidu Film School, Hyderabad.
In the documentary section, two documentaries were premiered in the festival. Thy Daughter O' Mother Earth: A documentary on the life & work of the legendary dancer & cultural anthropologist Manjushree Chaki Sarkar was made by noted filmmaker Shekhar Das. Meeting a Milestone made by another famous filmmaker Goutam Ghose was also premiered at the festival.
The competitive section huge response and entries came in various languages including Kurdish among other documentaries with varied subjects. 6 documentaries were selected and screened from the entries.
The inaugural movie was Iye directed by noted theater personality and film maker Mr. Debesh Chattopadhyay, starring Debshankar Haldar, Arpita Ghosh and Nitya Ganguly among others. The closing film of the festival was Mayurakshi by noted filmmaker Atanu Ghosh, starring Soumitra Chatterjee and Prosenjit Chatterjee among others.
The feature film edition of the 5th year also saw return to classic - featuring Tarun Majumder section which showcased two films Alo, and Nimontron by the eminent filmmaker Tarun Majumder. Each of the films were followed by a discussion with the person himself and a special discussion session was also arranged with Tarun Majumder moderated by eminent film critic Siladitya Sen.
This edition of the festival also introduced an exhibition of the artworks, cover designs, first drafts etc. made by internationally revered and honored Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray and curated by Sandip Ray.

Official Selection of HBFF 2018

  1. Iye
  2. Benche Thakar Gan
  3. Under Construction
  4. Sonar Pahar
  5. Rainbow Jelly
  6. Goodnight City
  7. Alifa
  8. Roktokorobi
  9. Pupa
  10. AndarKahini
  11. Aaron
  12. Nimantran
  13. Alo
  14. Mayurakshi

    Official Delegates List for HBFF 2018

  15. Tarun Majumder
  16. Rituparna Sengupta
  17. Swastika Mukherjee
  18. Sudipta Chakraborty
  19. Gargi Roychowdhury
  20. Mumtaz Sircar
  21. Abhijit Guha
  22. Sudeshna Roy
  23. Soukarya Ghoshal
  24. Kamaleswar Mukherjee
  25. Amitava Bhattachaya
  26. Rituparna Thakur
  27. Indrasish Acharya
  28. Arnab Middya
  29. Furdausul Hasan
  30. Siladitya Sen
  31. Shekhar Das
  32. Satarupa Sanyal
  33. Debesh Chattopdhyay
  34. Arpita Ghosh
  35. Arghyakamal Mitra

    Award List for HBFF 2018

Viewers' Choice Awards were:
  1. Best Supporting Actor, Female - Sudipta Chakraborty for the movie Pupa
  2. Best Supporting Actor, Male - Parambrata Chatterjee for the movie Sonar Pahar
  3. Best Actor, Female - Tanuja for the movie Sonar Pahar
  4. Best Actor, Male- Mahabrata Basu for the movie Rainbow Jelly
  5. Best Actor in Negative Role - Prasun Gain for the movie Alifa
  6. Best Film - Rainbow Jelly
Jury Awards were:
  1. Best Makeup - Md. Yunus for the movie AndarKahini
  2. Best Editing - Arghyakamal Mitra for the movie Raibow Jelly
  3. Best Cinematography - Goodnight City
  4. Best Music - AndarKahini
  5. Best Screenplay - Rainbow Jelly
  6. Best Actor, Male - Ritwick Chakraborty for the film Goodnight City
  7. Best Actor, Female - Priyanka Sarkar for the film AndarKahini
  8. Best Director - Indrasish Acharya for the film Pupa
  9. Best Film - Rainbow Jelly
  10. Special Mention - film Under Construction

    4th Edition of Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival (HBFF), 2017

The fourth edition of Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival was held from 30 June to 2 July 2017. This year, under a cultural exchange programme, two noted Telugu movies was screened along with eight Bengali movies.
The inaugural movie was Tope by noted film maker Buddhadeb Dasgupta which was premiered earlier in Toronto International Film Festival. The festival introduced two Telugu films as the festival aims in offering a platform for culture exchange through cinematic languages.
As this year, the iconic Bengali detective character Feluda is completing 50 years, there was a special selection as a tribute to the iconic character which included two movies, , and Sandip Ray's Bombaiyer Bombete.
Other than Guest Language section, Inaugural film and Feluda50 section, there were five Bengali movies which were screened in the festival under the Competitive Section- these five movies are listed down from no. 6 to no. 10.

Official Selection of HBFF 2017

  1. Tope
  2. Pelli Choopulu
  3. Naa Bangaaru Talli
  4. Feluda- 50 Years Of Ray's Detective
  5. Bombaiyer Bombete
  6. Abby Sen
  7. Asamapto
  8. Bisorjon
  9. Bibaho Diaries
  10. Peace Haven

    Official Delegates List for HBFF 2017

  11. Abir Chatterjee
  12. Sabyasachi Chakraborty, along with wife and actress Mithu Chakrabarty
  13. Swastika Mukherjee
  14. Kaushik Ganguly
  15. Buddhadeb Dasgupta
  16. Sohini Dasgupta
  17. Mainak Bhaumik
  18. Suman Mukhopadhyay
  19. Suman Ghosh
  20. Atanu Ghosh
  21. Rajesh Touchriver
  22. Padmashri Sunitha Krishnan
  23. Satarupa Sanyal
  24. K. N. T. Sastry
  25. Debesh Chattopadhyay
  26. Arpita Ghosh

    Award List for HBFF 2017

In the 4th year of HBFF, the festival has started two sets of awards- the Viewers' Choice Awards and the Jury Awards. Jury Awards were presented in association with Federation of Film Societies of India, and awards were decided by 3 jury members- film makers KNT Shastry and Satarupa Sanyal, and film journalist Premendra Mazumder.
Viewers' Choice Awards were:
  1. Best Supporting Actor, Female - Kamalika Banerjee for the movie Bibaho Diaries
  2. Best Supporting Actor, Male - Kaushik Ganguly for the movie Bishorjan
  3. Best Actor, Female - Jaya Ahsan for the movie Bishorjan
  4. Best Actor, Male- Ritwick Chakraborty for the movie Bibaho Diaries
  5. Best Film - Bishorjan
  6. Best Director - Kaushik Ganguly for the movie Bishorjan
Jury Awards were:
  1. Best Actor, Female - Jaya Ahsan for the movie Bishorjan
  2. Best Actor, Male - Bratya Basu for the movie Asamapto
  3. Best Film - Peace Haven
  4. Best Director - Suman Mukhopadhyay for the movie Asamapto
  5. Special Mention - film Abby Sen

    3rd Edition of Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival (HBFF), 2016

The third edition of Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival was held from 1–3 July 2016. As always, eight films have been showcased, followed by Q&A sessions with directors and eminent film personalities. This edition of festival is also curated by Ratnottama Sengupta, a noted film critic.
The titles for this year being Cinemawala, Onyo Opala, Anubrata Bhalo Acho?, Natoker Moto, Asha Jaoar Majhe, and Babar Naam Gandhiji. Additionally, HBFF also made Indian premier of two films - Kolkatar King and Bridge.
As always, HBFF hosted several directors and producers from the film industry. The guests include such names as Satarupa Sanyal, Paramita Banerjee, Debesh Chattopadhyay, Pavel, Judhajit Sarkar '', Partha Sen and Dr. Amit Ranjan Biswas.

Official Selection of HBFF 2016

  1. Bridge
  2. Kolkatar King
  3. Anubrata Bhalo Aachho?
  4. Asa Jaoar Maajhe
  5. Babar Naam Gandhiji
  6. Natoker Moto
  7. Onyo Opala
  8. Cinemawala

    Viewers' Choice Award

Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival is introducing a Viewers’ Choice Award for the first time in 2016. The audience will get to vote for the best movie, actor, director, etc. among the selection, and basis upon a composite scoring pattern, the winner in category will be decided. The entire voting process will be audited by a panel of independent auditors.
The categories for the Viewers' Choice Award are:
The first edition of awards went to the following people/ movies:
Apart from the Viewers' Choice Awards, the Festival also gave out a Special Jury Mention Award to the movie Asa Jaoar Majhe.
Along with the Festival organizers, the Film Critics Circle of India also awarded two special awards in the festival:
The second edition of Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival was better, bigger and more widely covered in media. The festival took place from 26 to 28 June 2015 and screened eight movies, viz., Kadambari, Bitnoon, Jogajog, Nirbaak, Nirbashito, Family Album, Chotoder Chobi and Teenkahon.
Luminaries in attendance included members of the Telugu film sphere, while the Bengali film industry was represented by National award-winning actress Ananya Chatterjee, actress and director Churni Ganguly, Director Mainak Bhaumik, Director Bauddhayan Mukherji, Director duo Abhijit Guha and Sudeshna Roy, Director Sekhar Das among others. Almost all the shows were houseful, and audience praised the selection of the movies as well as the curated panel discussions. Like the 1st edition, this edition was also curated by Ratnottama Sengupta and had multiple panel discussions and Q&A sessions with cast and crew of the films.

1st Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival (HBFF), 2014

The first edition of was organized in 2014, from 18 July to 20 July. Over two and a half days, movies such as Apur Panchali, Jaatishwar, Nayan Chapar Dinratri, Take One, Phoring, Jodi Love Dile na Prane, Meghe Dhaka Tara & Rupkatha Noy were screened. Famous guests in attendance included national award-winning actress Rupa Gangooly, Director Sekhar Das, Director duo Abhijit Guha and Sudeshna Roy among others. Shows ran to full houses, the film fraternity as well as aficionados of the twin cities were all praise for the great initiative. The event concluded on 20 July, and was widely covered in media.
Bengalis in Hyderabad team has written, composed, sang and shot the theme song of the festival in-house, which was screened before every movie and was very well received by the audience. The festival was curated by Ratnottama Sengupta, an eminent film critic and movie journalist.