Name of the Director: Aparna Sen

Filmmaker Bio:
Date of birth (location): 25 October 1945 Calcutta, West Bengal, British India. [Now India]

Aparna Sen is one of India's most celebrated directors. Her directorial debut was an English film, 36 Chowranghee Lane, which she also wrote. The film won The Grand Prix at the Manila International Film Festival and the National Award for Best Direction in India. Her directorial work also includes memorable films such as Sati, Parama, and Yugant. Daughter of the renowned film historian, critic, and filmmaker, Chidanda Das Gupta, Aparna Sen is also one of India's finest actresses and has won several awards for acting.
 
Name of the Director: Buddhadb Dasgupta

Filmmaker Bio:
Date of birth (location): 11 February 1944 Anara, India

Bengali poet and director, Dasgupta was a lecturer in economics at Calcutta University. Many of his poems have been published in various journals. His poeticism has been extended to cinema as well. During the early stages of his film career, Dasgupta made films inspired by Satyajit Ray's realistic films and later moved on to other forms.
 
Name of the Director: Mani Ratnam

Filmmaker Bio:
Date of birth (location): 1956 Madras, Tamil Nadu, India

Mani Ratnam is certainly the biggest director in South India today and a much-respected one all over India as well. He has revolutionized the Tamil Film Industry with technically strong films that are beautifully photographed with well picturised songs. Every frame in a Mani Ratnam film is perfectly composed and beautifully backlit even if this style involves total violation of tonal, focal and colour continuity.
Born in 1956 in Madras, he studied at Madras University and then received a management degree at the Bajaj Institute, Mumbai. He worked initially as a management consultant before getting in to films.

 
Name of the Director: Mrinal Sen

Filmmaker Bio:
Date of birth (location): 14 May 1923 Faridpur, East Bengal, British India. [Now in Bangladesh]

Sen is one of his nation's most politically active filmakers. In the mid-1940s he joined the Indian People's Theatre Association and at that time began to read about and study film. Sen used location shooting and non-professional casts in his early films. By the 1970s he was making wider use of symbolism and allegory. Sen's films have won numerous international awards. Kharij (1982) is a scathing look at the hypocritical reaction of a bourgeois Calcutta family to the death of a servant boy, took home the Jury Prize from the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.
 
Name of the Director: Shyam Benegal

Filmmaker Bio:
Date of birth (location): 14 December 1934 Aliwal, Hyderabad, British India (now Andhra Pradesh, India)

Shyam Benegal's contribution to the Hindi new wave cinema is remarkable. Most of his early day films were artistically superior and commercially successful. He introduced some of the most talented artists to Hindi films including Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Smita Patil and Amarish Puri. Benegal's first film Ankur narrated the Indian rural life and the feudal system.His later films Nishant, Manthan, Bhumika and Junoon added strength to the new wave cinema movement in India.
 
Name of the Director: Satyajit Ray

Filmmaker Bio:
Date of birth (location): 2 May 1921 Calcutta, West Bengal, British India. [now India]
Date of death (details): 23 April 1992 Calcutta, West Bengal, India.

Satyajit Ray was born in Calcutta on May 2nd., 1921. His father, Sukumar Ray was an eminent poet and writer in the history of Bengali literature. In 1940, after receiving his degree in science and economics from Calcutta University he attended Tagore's Viswa-Bharati University. His first movie Pather Panchali (1955) won several International Awards and set Ray as a world-class director. He died on April 23, 1992.