Amartya Bhattacharyya

Amartya Bhattacharyya is a filmmaker, writer and artist from eastern India. He was recently awarded the Silver Lotus (Rajat Kamal) 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'. 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'.

Amartya Bhattacharyya was born in a Bengali Hindu family on 21 August 1987 in Kolkata. He is a B.Tech graduate in Information Technology and graduated from Techno India College of Technology in 2009. He also works in a multinational IT company as a Technology analyst. 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.

'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 Bhattacharyya at the shooting of 'Khyanikaa-The Lost Idea'

Before making his debut feature film 'Capital I', Amartya had made few short films. His poetic psychodrama 'Boba Mukhosh (Translucence)' won him the Best Director award at White Screen Film Festival 2013 and the Best Editor at Rolling Frames 2013. 'Niloye Jokhon (At Home)' was officially selected at the 11th Human Rights Film Festival of Barcelona/New York/Paris. His fantasy short documentary 'Shiuli- in search of my Goddess!' was screened at various festivals including Leiria film fest in Portugal, Staffordshire Festival of Performing Arts in England, Vagrant Film Festival in Belarus, Festival Alto Vicentino in Italy, South Texas Underground Film Festival in USA, Simultan Film Festival in Romania, ProFire Film Festival in Scotland and ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival 2014 in Berlin, Germany. 'Swargadwar – In search of heaven' – his 2 minutes silent documentary was officially selected at the 10th Noussa International Film Festival in Greece and at the 3rd Electric Lantern Film Festival, 2014 in London. The experimental fantasy documentary – 'Benaras – The unexplored atachments' exploring the soul of the ancient city of Varanasi had its premiere at the Sahar International Short Film Festival in UK, followed by North American premiere at International Film Festival of South Asia, Canada and US Premiere at Windsor Independent Film Festival. The film was then screened at other international festivals in USA, Lativia and Canada. It won the Best Film award at 7th International Short Tourism Film Festival of Amorgos in Greece and won 5 awards - Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Music and Best Producer/Production Team at 9th NoHu International Short Film Festival 2016 at New Jersey. Amartya's latest short fiction 'Hoyto Kobitar Jonyo (In Poetic Hues)’ was a part of the Short Film Corner at 68th Festival de Cannes, 2015 and it won the Best Film award at the Moab International Film Festival, Utah, USA.

Apart from films, Amartya is also the author of two books – 'Ekush (21)' and 'Shatarupa' which are compilations of his poems on love, death and the dark sides of human nature.

Feature Films

Non-feature Films