Gaurav Chakrabarty

Gaurav Chakrabarty[1] is an Indian Bengali film and television actor best known for his portrayal of the character Prodipto Lahiri in the Bengali musical TV series Gaaner Oparey that aired on Star Jalsha from 28 June 2010 to 16 April 2011, and specially for the Bengali classic periodic thriller TV series Byomkesh (2014-2015), where he played the role of iconic Bengali detective Byomkesh Bakshi. He hails from a family which has had a legacy of association with the Bengali cultural arena, starting from Jochhon Dastidar and Chandra Dastidar (his paternal great uncle and aunt), Bijon Bhattacharya (his paternal great uncle), Jagadish and Monika Chakrabarty (his paternal grandparents), and his parents Sabyasachi Chakrabarty and Mithu Chakrabarty. He debuted on the big screen in Kaushik Ganguly's Rang Milanti, one of the most appreciated films of the year 2011.[2]

Gaurav Chakrabarty
গৌরব চক্রবর্তী
Gaurav Chakrabarty
Born	6 March 1987 Calcutta, India
Other names	Niki
Alma mater	Film and Television Institute of India, Pune St. Xavier's College, Kolkata
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2010–present
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Spouse(s)	Ridhima Ghosh (m. 28 November 2017)
Parent(s)	Sabyasachi Chakrabarty (father) Mithu Chakrabarty (mother)
Relatives	Arjun Chakrabarty (brother)

Calcutta Times voted him as one of the top 10 Most Desirable Men in 2015.

He is part of the ensemble cast of the Zee5 cop drama (web series), Lalbazaar.[3]

Education

Chakrabarty had his schooling at the Assembly of God Church School in Kolkata.[4] He subsequently earned a degree in Mass Communication and Videography from St. Xavier's College, Kolkata and completed his postgraduation in Video Editing from the Film and Television Institute of India at Pune.[5]

Early life

Gaurav got involved in theatre from a young age as part of the group Charbak, where he not only assisted in the backstage work (audio technician in the play Rong, Doodh Kheyechhe Meow and the runaway success Cholo Potol Tuli), but also acted as 'Topshe' in the play Apsara Theatre-er Mamla based on Satyajit Ray's thriller of the same name, under the direction of his father, who himself played the role of Feluda.[6] During his St. Xavier's days, he was roped in to play the lead in a documentary on HIV-Aids, Isolation, by teenage filmmaker Sangbit Samaddar, who was at that time, only a Class 12 student of South Point High School.[7]

His acting debut on the small screen happened post his FTII stint, when he was given a small role in the telefilm BaghNokh by Kaushik Ganguly, which aired on ETV Bangla as part of a weekly series.[4] However, his claim to fame was through the critically acclaimed Bengali musical TV series Gaaner Oparey which also saw the debut of his sibling Arjun Chakrabarty as the male lead Gora.

Career

Gaurav was launched in his first major project, along with his younger sibling Arjun Chakrabarty, in the Star Jalsha megaserial Gaaner Oparey produced by Ideas Creations Pvt. Ltd, the production company helmed by the Tollywood hero Prosenjit Chatterjee. Gaaner Oparey was conceived by the channel as a tribute to the poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore on his 150th birth anniversary, and would explore his applicability in the increasingly Westernized modern Bengali society.[8] With a script penned initially by actor and director Rituparno Ghosh and later by Anuja Chattopadhyay (who had previously worked on other serials like Ekhane Aakash Neel), the serial is widely credited for having brought back the educated Tagore-loving, intellectual Bengali audience in front of the television. Even though it ran for only about ten months, the show catapulted the young cast, primarily Gaurav, Arjun and Mimi Chakrabarty (who played the female lead) to fame within that short span of time.[9] Chakrabarty's character 'Prodipto Lahiri', in spite of not being the official male lead, found a cult following, largely due to its controlled and understated portrayal.

Gaurav made his silver screen debut with the film Rang Milanti, a romantic comedy directed by Kaushik Ganguly, that released in September 2011 to wide critical and commercial acclaim. He played the character 'Rik', a serious and docile software engineer in love with an ad-agency employee Kamalika (Ridhima Ghosh).[10] He also featured in the ensemble cast for Kaushik's movie, Laptop (released on 13 April 2012), which was selected for screening at the Indian Panorama section of the 42nd International Film Festival of India at Goa (IFFI 2011: 23 Nov. – 3 Dec.).[11] The film also had an international premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF 2011), where it competed for the Muhr AsiaAfrica Awards for feature films.[12] Laptop found Gaurav in the garb of a computer science master's student Jiyon, who also doubled up as the personal tutor of Ridhima Ghosh's character Raya, an aspiring model. That apart, he plays a Muslim lad Anwar, in love with a singer Kuhu (Ridhima Ghosh again), in Abhijit Dasgupta's Aashbo Aar Ekdin, co-directed by Arindam Sil. The ensemble cast has other big names like Abir Chatterjee, Swastika Mukherjee, Roopa Ganguly, Alokananda Roy, and others. He also appears as Indrajit Pratap Roy in Haranath Chakraborty's Chhayamoy based on Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay's story of the same name, and as Prasit in Atanu Ghosh's upcoming directorial venture (his 4th overall on big screen) Rupkatha Noy.[13]

Besides films, Gaurav has been keeping up with his theatre work and can be seen regularly as 'Topshe' in Apsara Theatre-er Mamla. He also starred in the Star Jalsha tele-serial Adwitiya which wrapped up recently (2 March 2012). There, he played the role of Robi Kiran Choudhury, the elder brother to protagonist Chandra Kiran Choudhury, played by Indrasish Roy. Robi Kiran, a far cry from the likes of Prodipto and Rik, was a power-hungry but educated village chief, whose life was governed by the schemes he designed to establish and maintain his political and social supremacy over his native village in the Sundarbans.[14]

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Director	Character	Notes
2011	Rang Milanti	Kaushik Ganguly	Rik
2012	Laptop	Kaushik Ganguly	Jiyon
2013	Chhayamoy	Haranath Chakraborty	Indrajit Pratap
2013	Rupkatha Noy	Atanu Ghosh	Prasit
2013	Ashbo Arek Din	Abhijit Dasgupta	Anwar
2014	Highway	Sudipto Chattopadhyay	Dhrubo
2014	Apur Panchali	Kaushik Ganguly	Arko
2014	Aagun	Joydeep Mukherjee	Binoy	Unreleased
2015	Fakebook	Sanjay Bardhan	Suman Naskar
2016	Eagoler Chokh	Arindam Sil	SI Sanjib Das	Special appearance
2016	Gangster	Birsa Dasgupta	Ajay	Special appearance
2016	Colkatay Columbus	Saurav Palodhi	Balahori Roy
2016	Double Feluda	Sandip Ray	Ranajit
2017	The Bongs Again	Anjan Dutt	Anindya
2018	Ashche Abar Shabor	Arindam Sil	SI Sanjib Das
2018	Crisscross	Birsa Dasgupta	Ahan
2019	Shortcut	Subir Mondal	Abesh	Unreleased
2019	Bhootchakra Pvt. Ltd.	Haranath Chakraborty	Nemo
2019	Parineeta	Raj Chakraborty	Ranadeb Sen
2019	Purba Paschim Dakshin	Rajorshi Dey	Atin
2019	Sagardwipey Jawker Dhan	Sayantan Ghosal	Kumar
2020	Dwitiyo Purush	Srijit Mukherji	Rajat
2020	Tenida & Co.	Sayantan Ghosal	Kyabla	Post production
2020	Cholo Potol Tuli	Arindam Ganguly	Mainak
2021	Bismillah	Indraadip Dasgupta	Shibu	Post production
2021	Ei Ami Renu	Soumen Sur	Sumit	Based on Samaresh Majumdar’s novel
2021	Swastik Sanket	Sayantan Ghosal	Priyam	Post production
2021	Abar Kanchanjungha	Rajorshi Dey	Rohit	Post production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Producer	Channel
2010-11	Gaaner Oparey	Prodipto Lahiri (Parallel lead)	Prosenjit Chatterjee	Star Jalsha
2011-12	Adwitiya	Rabikiran Chowdhury (Lead antagonist)	Prosenjit Chatterjee	Star Jalsha
2014–15	Byomkesh	Byomkesh Bakshi (Lead role)	Rana Sarkar	Colors Bangla
2016	Mahanayak	Biswanath (based on Biswajit Chatterjee)	Shree Venkatesh Films	Star Jalsha

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Director
2007	Apsara Theatre-er Mamla	Topshe	Sabyasachi Chakrabarty
2013	Ekhon Tokhon	Baradakanto	Arindam Ganguly
2016	Chitey Gur	Siddhartha	Arindam Ganguly
2017	Mushkil Ashaan	Saralakkha Home	Arindam Ganguly
2017	Shironaam	Ambarish	Kheyali Dastidar
2019	Bheeti O Shubhechcha	Rono	Kheyali Dastidar

Short films & web series

Year	Film	Director	Platform	Format
2018	Shrimati Bhayankari	Robiul Alam	HoiChoi	Web Original Film
2018	Saiyaan	Abhiroop Basu	YouTube	Music video
2019	Mukhomukhi	Partha Sen	YouTube	Short Film (Indo-Bangladesh project)
2019	Bhalobashar Shohor (Pori)	Aritra Sen & Rohan Ghose	Zee5	Web Original Film
2019	Parking	Saurav Palodhi		Short Film
2019	Shesh Mess	Aditya Sengupta & Kheya Chattopadhyay	Zee Bangla Cinema	Zee Bangla Cinema Originals
2020	Lalbazaar	Sayantan Ghosal	Zee5	Web Series

TVCs

Year	Brand	Director	Notes
2017	Anjali Jewellers	Anindya Chatterjee
2018	Myntra	Indranil Roychowdhury
2018	Hiland Riverside Project	Anindya Chatterjee
2019	Sunrise Spices	Anik Dutta	On Air

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Film/TV show	Result
2012	Star Guide Bengali Film Awards	Best Male Debut	Rang Milanti	Won
	International Bangla Film Academy Awards	Promising Face of the Year		Nominated
2014	Tele Academy Award	Best actor in a leading role	Byomkesh	Won
2016	Solo room award	Best young talent	Contribution in Bengali film industry	Won

References

1. "In his genes". The Indian Express. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
2. Nag, Kushali (12 September 2011). "Rang Milanti premiere". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India.
3. "Lalbazaar: A cop drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat till the end". India Today. 19 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
4. "Gaurav makes his dad proud". The Times Of India. 7 April 2010.
5. "More friend than father". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India. 20 June 2008.
6. Nag, Kushali (24 December 2007). "Feluda cracks theatre code". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India.
7. Banerjee, Malini (9 August 2008). "Hold on to hope". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India.
8. Sengupta, Reshmi (28 May 2010). "A soapy Tagore tribute". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India.
9. "Television 2010". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India. 30 December 2010.
10. Nag, Kushali (8 September 2010). "Colour me young". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India.
11. "Singer Jojo is in Kaushik's Laptop". Tollyrise. 24 May 2011. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012.
12. "True Celebration of Indian Cinema at Dubai Fest". NDTV Movies. 23 November 2011. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012.
13. "Atanu's tribute to Soumitra Chatterjee". The Times Of India. 5 October 2012.
14. "Good to bad but not so ugly". The Times Of India. 26 July 2011.

External links

• Official Blog