Sudipto Sen

ME & MYSELF

Me and my home – My childhood days

I was born on January 16, 1967.
I belong to a tiny hamlet kind of place called Jalpaiguri, just at Himalayan foothill, in remote Assam-Bengal-Bhutan border area. Sandwiched between two mighty Himalayan rivers TISTA and KARLA, Jalpaiguri is a fascinating place – misty, amorous… surrounded by skyline touching tea gardens and paddy fields. Once, Jalpaiguri was the nerve center of Indian tea industry. But, in course of time, it looses the relevance as the capital of tea industry…
I belong to a joint family of 22 people and being the youngest one, since my childhood, I had been the most pampered child!

My early schooling was there in a local Bengali medium school but by the time I was 13 years of age, I shifted to Calcutta (newly know as Kolkata) and completed my schooling there. I joined Jadavpur University with Mathematics honors but after one year I decided to shift to Physics Honors and at the end, completed my honors graduation in Physics from Calcutta University. Then I joined post graduate masters in Applied Psychology – the then newly introduced faculty in Calcutta University. During my masters, I got opportunity to join prestigious Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune for a course in film direction. I completed my masters afterward in 1994.

My inspiration

North Bengal in 70s and 80s was reeling under ultra left peasant movement, called Naxalite Movement. Initially though, it was a militant peasant movement, but subsequently, it was been taken over by Bengali intelligentsia. Students, teachers, laborers in thousands joined this movement. It became a mass hysteria in entire Bengal, Bihar area (large part of India is still under major influence of the philosophy of ultra leftist...). My eldest sister and second brother were actively in to the movement. My sister was arrested by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in November, 1973. I saw her getting arrested, when I was just 6 years old. Even today if I close my eyes, I can see her arguing with a huge battalion of police as they came to arrest her in the evening. She made them wait till next morning. She was in jail as political prisoner for 3-years. She had been tortured in jail brutally for three long years. Being a prominent philosophical leader of the movement, she used to be moved frequently from one jail to another. We did not know which jail she used to be. I used to see hidden tears of my mother – but, I used to feel proud for my sister, Marxist-Leninist leader Ratna Sen!… and still I am.

When she came out of jail in 1977 – I can recollect that day also, graphically. State of Emergency had been imposed on the entire country by Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi and her ruling Congress party. But after two years, United Democratic front defeated congress in general election badly and took over the reign of New Delhi. On they day one, State of Emergency had been lifted. In West Bengal state Left Front government replaced Congress. New government freed all political prisoners immediately. And, my sister came out of jail… got heroic reception. Thin, determined sharp eyed lovely looking 28 years old my sister when walking out of huge Iron Gate, she was not able to stand properly. She was broken in to pieces by the monstrous police torture. But her one single look and a smile towards me – made my life. I acquired all my energy and passion for life from that small smile of her.

She had been my greatest inspiration all through the life and my greatest teacher also. She is my hero of childhood, youth and beyond. She used tell me the stories of the revolutionaries like, Mao-tse-Tung, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Joseph Stalin…

I also wanted to be a revolutionary – but that dream left me as I reached Calcutta.

My next biggest influence was my private tutor, Prof Rajit Chatterjee. He was a professor of Psychology but was teaching me science. He introduced me to Freud. The biggest crush when I was crossing my teens. Very thoughts about Freud used to make me mad. I feel I still posses that madness in me.

Combination of revolutionary thoughts and writings of Freud… took me towards the world of Cinema. One day I happened to see a package of French New wave cinemas, just after my final school leaving exam. It was bizarre… The dream of becoming a filmmaker to a boy from a small town like Jalpaiguri… my family was flabbergasted.
So, my juggling between Mathematics, Physics, Applied Psychology reflects my uneasiness or restlessness… I used to feel cinema in my breathing…

A traveler in me

Since my school days in Calcutta, I had my habit of running away from home! First time I ran away after my pretest exam of standard 10 th. For three months I traveled in Garwal Himalayas with two of my friends. Second time I ran away just before appearing final school exam in class 12 th. That was for 1 month. That time I went to Nepal Himalayas. I don’t wanted to do Masters’ in Physics…. But my father was pressurizing for it, so I ran away again, for a pan Indian trip… in 3 months I traveled entire south and central India. That was my last running away from home. Since then, I never ran away but just waited to set out of home and go to Himalayas. Himalayas and the river Tista is been my greatest inspiration.

Traveler in me, made me strong and self critic… made me adaptable under any circumstances, gave me strong sense of analyzing and expressing things. I can recall my staying of 25 days with carnivorous tribe call BONDA in Koraput district of Orissa. I spent more than a year in Kalahandi, Koraput, Bolangir districts of Orissa and Bastar district of Chattisgarh with 90% primitive tribal population. I spent more than 3 months in Northeastern India – traveled alone in the places like Khasi and Garo Hills, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal…

I am a born traveler… I lived with my exploration and I want to die in exploration…

I used to take part in almost all democratic movements related to Human rights, environment, tribal rights etc. I was organically involved in Chilika Bachao Movement (Orissa), Narmada Bachao Andolan (MP, Rajasthan & Maharastra), Save Bhitarkanika Movement (Orissa), Chipko Movement (UP), tribal right movements (Orissa, MP, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh), Friends of Bhopal Movement and many more.

My cinema

I first worked professionally, with a project called BHARAT KI CHHAP… a series of films on history of Science and Technology in Indian Sub Continent. I was organizing sundry for the project. That film was directed by Chhandita Mukherjee, my senior in the film institute.

My next work was two very successful main stream Indian films. I was not professionally involved in the films, worked as trainee assistant. But, being there in different schedule of shooting, I learnt making of cinema very closely. I realized, film schools cannot make a filmmaker. It just induced some courage to think of making film.

I learnt how to tell a story… the theory called Auteur Theory… using of camera as pen.

But I didn’t like Mumbai and the film industry at all and went back to Calcutta again in 1993.

During 1993-95, I shot few documentaries and corporate films. Union Carbide, Britannia, Government of West Bengal and Orissa Government were my clients. I used to write a lot on European new wave cinema in the Bengali news paper. I use to be a strong campaigner against Hollywood and propagator of European cinema. I loved being in theories of cinema, rather than making films physically. I wanted to be a Film Theoretician.

That time I shot a film for Channel 4 Television called LAND WITHIN RIPPLES – it was on an eroding island in Sundarbans, GHORAMARA – the biggest deltaic region in the world. That film helped me get a generous financer/producer who gave me money to make almost silent experimental documentary film THE OTHER WEALTH. It was absolutely my personal journey to a land, which is been taken over by land mafias in the vicinities of Calcutta. That film got me NATIONAL AWARD. And my life took major turn… an irreversible turn towards taking up film as a profession.

TOW selected in no. of International film festivals and I got over night success. I had been approached by THE WORLD BANK to sign a contract with them for 11 films on their activities in India for two years. The series called SWAMSIDH gave me opportunity to travel more than 56, 000 Km on road travel in the remotest corner of India over the period of two years. That was the most remarkable phase of my life.

This assignment made me shift my base to Delhi from Calcutta as WB head quarter is in Delhi. My Delhi life started in 1997. Besides doing the films for WB, I used to do lot of ad and corporate films in Delhi. HONDA GENSET, SHALIMAR, SHELL ENGINE OIL, INDIAN STEEL, BRITISH COUNCIL, MARUTI CAR, CII, IGL, GAIL, LICI were my major ad and corporate works.

With my works for WB (which was sort of first time kind of work in the history of WB) – organizations like, UNDP, UNEP, UNIFEM, ACTIONAID, DFID, ADB and many other NGOs started contacting me for their films. So, from 1997 to 2003 was my busiest time as a filmmaker. I enjoyed as a traveler. I enjoyed to work on the issues which are very close to my heart… addressing social and political issues in my film – was sort of my dream and I did flamboyantly.

Since the beginning of 2003, I was having a plan to take a break from monotonous same kind of work for 3-4 years relentlessly and one day finally I left everything. I went to Ladakh for a break… alone…

I stayed there for two and half months. That was my 10th or 12th time visit to that place but that visit was of extreme significance as there I decide to make the film called THE LAST MONK. Once I decided to make my first feature film, I stopped working in any other film and since 2003 end I just concentrated in TLM. Though I have written few scripts in between, but not worked professionally at all. I wanted to do justice with my first independent film.

I completed TLM in 2006.
My journey of life till today was candid, instantaneous, experimental and most importantly heart driven. I never did anything with an organized thought process before I made TLM... TLM taken out the "complete" me from the hibernation and made me a professional in global terminology...
So far I have written almost 10 feature film scripts and 12 scripts for documentary and all are derived from my experience as a traveler and disciple of my sister, Sigmund Freud and Charles Darwin. I didn’t have any action plan to work from an organized platform to make all the films I dreamt of. I never thought, that films I want to make, are not ‘conventional commercial films’ in Indian scenario and in order to make those films, I need to work form a platform, who will believe in me and my works… who can contribute and hence enrich my thought process… who wants to tell ‘stories’ the way I want… Then only I shall be able to move ahead in life. Exactly the same way, the French New Waves Turks - Godard, Truffaut, Shabrol, Bassett and Romar made their films. They not only made their films together as a movement, but also put the biggest threat before Hollywood. World cinema is indebted to these ‘magnificent five’, and will remain indebted, till the time another typhoon of thoughts do not come and wipe off Hollywood. Cinema in Latin America is coming up in a big way as an osmosis of evolved thoughts. Cinema from Central America, Africa, Central Asia and Arab world all are making brilliant films to shaken the ground of the believe system of global art and culture and the history of cinema itself.

Meanwhile I completed a short fiction AKHNOOR with a Belgian Co Production. Another Belgian coproduction CORENTIN'S QUEST I completed in 2007. AKHNOOR got me, few major International Awards.

Recently I worked as the Creative Producer with a Malayalam film ANTHIPPONOVETTAM...

And, lastly... I am stating my next feature in Hindi... soon! Please wish me!!