Shantanu Bagchi is an Indian film director who is known for directing the Bollywood film ‘Mission Majnu’ in 2023.
Wiki/Biography
Shantanu Bagchi was born in Calcutta. He pursued his graduation in graphic design at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Shantanu was inspired by Satyajit Ray since he was a child. He first met him when he was five or six years old and even played a role in his film Sonar Kella as a child artist. He played the role of a boy who was kidnapped in place of Mukul. When he watched the film ‘Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne’ directed by Satyajit Ray for the first time, he became fond of filmmaking. As a child, he was also interested in animation but he could only see the animation on Disney.
Shantanu Bagchi as a child with Satyajit Ray
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 5″
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Parents & Siblings
There is not much information available about his parents and siblings.
Wife & Children
There is not much information available about his wife.
Career
Film
Shantanu started his career as a child artist. He has appeared in four to five films as a child actor. He acted in the film Ramer Sumati in 1985 which was based on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s work. In 2023, he directed the film ‘Mission Majnu’ which was trending in the top 10 films list in 18 countries on Netflix including India, Canada, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sri Lanka. It also became the No. 2 non-English film globally on Netflix in its opening weekend of release and took the first spot in India.
Poster of the film ‘Mission Majnu’
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He moved to Mumbai to pursue his career as an ad filmmaker. In 1991, he made his first ad film for Rasna’s instant orange drink which was an unpaid project. He has worked on around 500 ad commercials across brands and has worked with actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Kajol, Saif Ali Khan, Brett Lee, Sachin Tendulkar and Katrina Kaif. According to him, the celebrities he worked with never showed tantrums to him and he did not face any problem working with them. He received many international awards and his work was appreciated at many big global levels from Cannes. In 2015, he directed the ad film for Nycil Cool Shower.
Awards, Honours, Achievements
- New York Festival Award twice
Facts/Trivia
- He is very close to Satyajit Ray’s family and keeps in touch with Sandip (Ray) who he visited when he went to meet his sister in Kolkata.
- In an interview, he said that he used to deliver stories through his ads which convinced the audience. He received a lot of film scripts but he did not like any. Finally, he made his debut in 2023 as a film director after he liked the script of the film ‘Mission Majnu.’
- According to him, he also received inspiration from other filmmakers like Vittorio De Sica, Majid Majidi, Akira Kurosawa, Quentin Tarantino, Alfred Hitchcock, James Cameron, and Ridley Scott.
- He worked with one of India’s leading children’s comics magazines to show his illustration work when he was a student.
An illustration work by Shantanu Bagchi
- He has created two animation films based on sketches of RK Laxman and paintings of Jamini Roy.
- Some of his TVCs were based on sketches of RK Laxman and paintings of Jamini Roy.
- In an interview, he talked about working in a spy film and said that he was always interested in making films about people who were not very famous. He thought that Indian history was the best place to find a spy story. In the interview, he talked about working on a spy film and said,
It is a multi-plot film. To keep the pace and tell it in an engrossing way was the challenge. But I enjoy watching spy thrillers and it was a great story based on real events. I was excited and kicked to direct such interesting material.”
- According to him, he faced some challenges because he was a first-time director. In an interview, he said that because it was his first time, he could not bring out his creative side totally and the actors who worked with him took some time to trust him.
- After the release of his film ‘Mission Majnu,’ it received criticism from actor Adnan Siddiqui who took to social media to say that the film was misrepresenting Pakistanis in the film. He further said that the film was “distasteful” and factually inaccurate. In a social media post, he said that Pakistanis “don’t wear skull caps, surma, and tawiz, neither throw adaabs” but Sidharth Malhotra who portrayed the role of Tariq was seen wearing them in the film.
Categories: Biography
Source: SCHOOL TRANG DAI
