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List of notable people from Kolkata. Kolkata has been regarded as the cultural capital of India.[1]
Poets and writers
[edit]- Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay
- 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
- Amelia Horne
- Kaji Nazrul Islam
- Sisir Kumar Maitra
- Binoy Majumdar
- Mohitolal Majumdar
- Samaresh Majumdar (b.1944)
- Arun Mitra
- Dinabandhu Mitra
- Premendra Mitra
- Dhan Gopal Mukerji
- Subhas Mukhopadhyay
- Purnendu Patri
- Christopher Raja
- Annada Shankar Ray
- Dwijendralal Ray
- Tarapada Ray
- Sukumar Ray
- Samar Sen
- Syed Mujtaba Ali
- S Wajid Ali
- Badal Sircar, dramatist and theatre director
- Rabindranath Tagore, 1st non-European to win a Nobel Prize
- Shobhanasundari Mukhopadhyay, Shovana Devi Tagore, folklorist
- Mimi Mondal, First Indian English writer who nominated for Hugo Award.
- Srijato
- Jaydeep Sarangi, English poet (also writes in Bangla) with nine collections
Philosophers and religious teachers
[edit]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)
- Rajendra Pillai (1968-)[2][3]
- A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896—1977), founder of 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)
Scientists
[edit]List in order of surname.
- James Atkinson (1780—1852), surgeon, artist and Persian scholar
- R. D. Banerji, archeologist
- Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858—1937), Bengali polymath, physicist, biologist, biophysicist, botanist and archaeologist
- Upendranath Brahmachari
- 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), Indian 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 (b. 1933), historian
- Ujjwal Maulik (b. 1965), computer scientist
- Subhash Mukhopadhyay (1931—1981), physician
- Sisir Kumar Mitra (1890—1963), physicist
- Rajat Kanta Ray, historian
- Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri (1923—2005), physicist, known for his research in general relativity and cosmology
- Tapan Raychaudhuri (1926—2014), historian
- 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 (b. 1939), historian
- Susobhan Sarkar (1900—1982), historian
- Tapan Kumar Sarkar (1948—2021), electrical engineer
- Ashoke Sen (b. 1956), theoretical physicist
- Bikas K Chakrabarti (b. 1952), theoretical physicist & econophysicist
- Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay (b. 1968), computer scientist
- Sukumar Sen (linguist) historian of Bengali literature
Gallantry Awards winners
[edit]- Flight Lieutenant Suhas Biswas
- Squadron Leader Madhavendra Banerji
Bankers and business people
[edit]- Amar Kumar Bera
- Lakshmi Narayan Mittal
- Ravi Modi[4]
- P. C. Bhattacharya, 7th Governor, Reserve Bank of India
- Aditya Vikram Birla
- Rama Prasad Goenka (RPG Group)
- Sanjiv Goenka
- Chandra Shekhar Ghosh (founder of Bandhan Bank)
- Radhe Shyam Agarwal
- Radhe Shyam Goenka
- Rajat Gupta (b. 1948)
- Nalini Ranjan Sarkar
- Mati Lall Seal
- Ellis Jacob (founder of Cineplex Entertainment)
- Tiny Rowland (chairman of Lonrho from 1962 to 1993)
- Prannoy Roy (b.1949)
Freedom fighters
[edit]- Sri Aurobindo
- Benoy Basu
- Khudiram Bose
- Rash Behari Bose
- Subhash Chandra Bose
- Jogesh Chandra Chattopadhyay
- Chittaranjan Das
- Jatindra Nath Das
- Bagha Jatin
- Badal Gupta
- Dinesh Gupta
- Shyama Prasad Mukherjee
- Bipin Chandra Pal
- Sudhamoy Pramanick
- Bidhan Chandra Roy
- Ashoke Kumar Sen
- Matangini Hazra
- Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
- Sisir Kumar Ghosh
Performing arts
[edit]Artists
[edit]Directors
[edit]Satyajit Ray, who won the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1992, lived in Kolkata and is considered among the greatest directors of film history.
Other notable filmmakers from Kolkata include:
- Nitin Bose
- Buddhadeb Dasgupta
- Anik Dutta
- Kaushik Ganguly
- Ritwik Ghatak
- Gautam Ghose
- Rituparno Ghosh
- Hrishikesh Mukherjee
- Srijit Mukherji
- Shiboprosad Mukherjee
- Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
- Tapan Sinha
- Aparna Sen
- Mrinal Sen
Cinema actors
[edit]- Uttam Kumar
- Utpal Dutt
- Soumitra Chatterjee
- Sabyasachi Chakrabarty
- Koushik Sen
- Dhritiman Chaterji
- Tapen Chatterjee
- Rabi Ghosh
- Barun Chanda
- Pahari Sanyal
- N. Viswanathan
- Chhabi Biswas
- Karuna Bannerjee
- Anil Chatterjee
- Subir Banerjee
- Roopa Ganguly
- Uma Dasgupta
- Saswata Chatterjee
- Tarun Kumar
- Anup Kumar
- Ashok Kumar
- Bhanu Bandopadhyay
- Biswajit Chatterjee
- Prosenjit Chatterjee
- Jahor Roy
- Kanan Devi
- Sagarika Mukherjee
- Swastika Mukherjee
- Razzak
- Dev, MP, actor and film producer
- Jeet
- Ruma Guha Thakurta
- Ranjit Mallick
- Mirza Abbas Ali
- Suchitra Sen
- Sharmila Tagore
- Aparna Sen
- Sushmita Sen
- Moonmoon Sen
- Riya Sen
- Raima Sen
- Reema Sen
- Omar Sani
- Victor Banerjee
- Parambrata Chatterjee
- Konkona Sen Sharma
- Varsha Ashwathi
- Abhishek Chatterjee
- Tathagata Mukherjee
- Monali Thakur, singer and actress
- Ankush Hazra
- Yash Dasgupta
- Bonny Sengupta
- Nusrat Jahan, MP and actress
- Mimi Chakraborty, MP and actress
- Anirban Bhattacharya
- Sayani Gupta
- Sayak Chakraborty
Theatre figures
[edit]- Rudraprasad Sengupta, actor and director
- Sambhu Mitra, actor and director
- Girishchandra Ghosh father of Bengali theatre
- Chitra Sen
- Koushik Sen
Photographers
[edit]Composers
[edit]- Jeet Ganguly
- Kabir Suman
- Salil Chowdhury
- Rahul Dev Burman
- Shashi Preetam
- Sachin Dev Burman
- Bappi Lahiri
- Shantanu Moitra
- Pritam
- Hemanta Mukhopadhyay
- Nachiketa Ghosh
- Sudhin Dasgupta
- Anupam Roy
- Anjan Dutt
- Jaimin Rajani
- Pankaj Mullick
- Anil Biswas
- Nachiketa Ghosh
- Shyamal Mitra
Hindustani classical singers/maestros
[edit]- 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[6]
- Pandit Nikhil Banerjee
- Ustad Amjad Ali Khan
- Ustad Bahadur Khan
- Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty
- Anjan Chattopadhyay
Hindustani classical instrumentalists
[edit]Other singers
[edit]- 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
- Debabrata Biswas
- Begum Akhtar
- Usha Uthup
- Indrani Sen
- Ruma Guha Thakurta
- Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta
- Suman Chatterjee
- Sachin Dev Burman
- Anjan Dutt
- Rupam Islam
- Prashant Tamang
- Shayan Chowdhury Arnob
Contemporary Bollywood musicians
[edit]- 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]Prominent dancers of the city include:
- Uday Shankar and his wife Amala Shankar
- Mamata Shankar
- Tanushree Shankar
- Ananda Shankar
- Sadhana Bose
- Sharmila Biswas[7]
- Shila Mehta, classical dance artist, choreographer, teacher, and composer
- Rani Karnaa
- Rajeswari Vaidyanathan, Tedx Speaker, trainer, performer and choreographer
Magicians
[edit]Kolkata is the magic capital of India and has produced internationally famous magicians and performers, including:
Sports
[edit]- Norman Pritchard, track and field, Olympic medallist (1900)
- Richard James Allen, hockey, Olympic(1928, 1932, 1936)
- Leslie Claudius, hockey, Olympic medallist (1924, 1928, 1936)
- Gurbux Singh, hockey, Olympic medallist (1964, 1968)
- Vece Paes, hockey, Olympic medallist (1980)
- Leander Paes, tennis, Olympic medallist (1996)
- Sourav Ganguly, cricketer, former India national cricket team's captain, sports administrator, former BCCI president
- Chhanda Gayen, mountaineer, first Bengali woman to summit Mount Everest
- Pankaj Roy, cricketer
- Laxmi Ratan Shukla, cricketer
- Deep Dasgupta, cricketer
- Rohan Gavaskar, cricketer (son of Sunil Gavaskar)
- Manoj Tiwary, cricketer
- Ashok Dinda, cricketer
- Wriddhiman Saha, cricketer
- Mohammed Shami, cricketer
- Len Stubbs, former cricketer
- Chuni Goswami, footballer
- Gautam Sarkar, footballer
- Shailen Manna, footballer, former India national football team's captain (guided India to Gold medal in 1951 Asiad)
- Pradip Kumar Banerjee, footballer
- Krishanu Dey, footballer
- Sudip Chatterjee, footballer
- Subrata Pal, footballer
- Subhasish Roy Chowdhury, footballer
- Syed Rahim Nabi, footballer
- Mehtab Hossain, footballer
- Arnab Mondal, footballer
- Pronay Halder, footballer
- Pritam Kotal, footballer
- Narayan Das, footballer
- Subhasish Bose, footballer
- Mihir Sen, record swimmer
- Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, track and field
- Arjun Atwal, golfer
- Surya Shekhar Ganguly, chess grandmaster
- Dibyendu Barua, chess grandmaster
- Sandipan Chanda, chess grandmaster
- Deep Sengupta, chess grandmaster
- Gobar Guha, wrestler
- Manohar Aich, body builder, Mr. Universe 1952
- Dipu Ghosh, badminton, Arjuna Award
- Saurav Ghosal, squash player
- Jaidip Mukerjea, tennis player
- Jagmohan Dalmiya, sports administrator
- Pankaj Gupta, sports administrator
- John Holman, cricketer
- William Laidlay, cricketer
- Hira Mondal, Footballer
Nobel laureates
[edit]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 (b. 1933) — economics, 1998
- Abhijit Banerjee (b. 1961) - economics, 2019
- CV Raman - physics
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
[edit]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]- Samik Bandyopadhyay (b.1940), critic of Indian art, theatre and film
- Tanmoy Bhattacharya (b. 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 (b. 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
- Mohit Kumar (b. 1992), fashion model and influencer[8]
- Rajendra Prasad (1884—1963), politician, the first President of India (from 1950 to 1962)
- Romita Ray (b. 1970), art historian
- Radhika Roy (b.1948), journalist
- Gayatri Chakravorty Spiv (b. 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]- ^ naiya, Arijit; Anita Desai (2003). Calcutta: a cultural and literary history. Signal Books. p. xiv. ISBN 978-1-902669-59-5.
- ^ "Meet Our Team | Damascus Road Community Church". Damascus Road Community Church | Welcome. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
- ^ "Rajendra Pillai | Penguin Random House". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
- ^ "The Untold Story Of How Ravi Modi Built Vedant Fashions—the Makers Of Manyavar—into A $3.5 Billion Behemoth". Forbes India. Retrieved 5 December 2024.
- ^ "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.
- ^ https://medium.com/@wearemojocreatives/mohit-kumar-fashion-model-of-kolkata-wins-male-model-of-the-year-west-bengal-2023-dce7214ffb6a
