Ramananda Sengupta (1916 – 2017) was a veteran Indian cinematographer from Bengal. Dacca is his hometown. Apart from Bengali films, he also did a few Oriya films. He started his career as an assistant cinematographer in the year 1938, and his career spanned to 4 decades before he took retirement in 1976. He has also guided many technicians in the field of cinema during his peak years. He did the camera work for more than 70 films, which include Bandhu, Nishithe, Dakghar, Bindur Chhele, Personal Assistant, Nagarik, Shilpi, Kankabatir Ghat, etc. He also did a few documentaries. Shrimati Hansaraj was his last filmy work.
Ramananda Sengupta – Famous Bengali Cinematographer
Ramananda Sengupta was born in Dhaka, then a part of British India. For some time, he studied at Shantiniketan. His studies at Shantiniketan ended abruptly following his father’s death, and he returned. He later came to Kolkata in the mid-1930s in search of a job and was hired by cinematographer G K Mehta at the Film Corporation studio as an assistant. 1941 film Kurukshetra was his first film in an assistant role. 1948 movie – “Purbarag” was his first movie as a full-fledged cinematographer. French filmmaker Renoir was making a documentary titled ‘The River’ in 1949, and Sengupta became his cinematographer. It proved to be the major turning point of his career, which polished his talents as well. There was no turning back after that.
Ramananda Sengupta – Some interesting and lesser-known facts
1. When he passed away in 2017, he was the senior-most cinematographer of the Indian film industry. He was 101 years old and the oldest among all Indian cameramen.
2. The last living link to the “Golden Age” of the studio era, he left behind a legacy, never to be replaced again,
3. Sengupta was the only cinematographer to have worked with all the legends – Jean Renoir, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen.
4. Utsav Mukherjee made a documentary based on his life in 1997 titled ‘Under Exposed’.
5. He worked with Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen for their debut full-length films – Nagarik and Raat Bhore, respectively.
6. He joined Shantiniketan for studies at the age of 9. He didn’t know Bengali and knew only Tamil and Telugu then. He spent his early childhood in Chennai, where his father worked in the railways as a permanent way inspector.
7. He was a founding member of the Technicians’ Studio in South Kolkata’s Tollygunge.
8. On his 100th birthday in 2015, he was honored by a large gathering of Tollywood veterans, including director Goutam Ghose and cinematographer Soumendu Roy.
9. Despite being a towering figure in Indian cinema—renowned for his work with legendary directors like Jean Renoir (The River), Ritwik Ghatak (Nagarik), and Mrinal Sen—his contributions were primarily recognized within the film industry and by his peers rather than through national civilian honors.
10. Documentaries like Alor Frame e Chhayar Saaj (Framing Light Against the Shadows) by Siddhartha Maity and Under Exposed by Utsav Mukherjee were written in his honour,
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