Amartya Bhattacharyya is a 29 year old artist from eastern India. Amartya Bhattacharyya is not only an independent film director, but also a poet, writer, cinematographer, editor, painter, actor, lyricist, recitation artist and a photographer.
He was recently awarded the Silver Lotus (Rajat Kamal) for the Best Cinematography in non-feature film at the 63rd National Film Awards by the president of India for his fantasy documentary "˜Benaras-the unexplored attachments'. He further won the Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing awards for the same film at 9th NoHu International Film Festival at New Jersey and the Best Film award at a film festival at Amorgos Island, Greece.
All of Amartya's films, poems and other works are dark, mostly surreal, and psychoanalytic in nature. He names the genre of his films as 'Phychodrama'.
'Capital I', Amartya's debut feature film happens to be the first independent feature film of Odisha. It was officially selected in competition among six films at the 3rd South Asian Alternative Film Festival Paris in February, 2015, 20th International Film Festival of Kerala 2015, Delhi International Film Festival 2015, 8th Bengaluru International Film Festival 2016, 11th International Film Festival of Thrissur 2016, 11th Habitat Film Festival and some other festivals. It is the first Indian film to be acquired by the Italy based sales and distribution company "˜The Open Reel'. The film is being broadcast through the Poland-based TV channel "˜Filmbox Arthouse'.
Before making 'Capital I', Amartya has made a few short films, including the poetic psychodrama 'Boba Mukhosh' for which he won the Best Director at White Screen Film Festival 2013 and the Best Editor at Rolling Frames 2013. Also in 2014 his short social drama - 'Niloye Jokhon' was officially selected and screened at the 11th Human Rights Film Festival of Barcelona/New York/Paris. His fantasy short documentary 'Shiuli- in search of my Goddess!' was screened at various festivals round the world including countries like USA, England, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Belarus, Romania, etc. 'Swargadwar - In search of heaven' - his 2 minutes silent documentary was officially selected at the 10th Noussa International Film Festival 2014 at Greece and at the 3rd Electric Lantern Film Festival, 2014 at London. The experimental fantasy documentary - 'Benaras - The unexplored atachments' exploring the soul of the ancient city of Varanasi had its World Premiere at the Sahar International Short Film Festival, 2015 in February at Manchester, UK, followed by North American premiere at International Film Festival of South Asia, Canada and US Premiere at Windsor Independent Film Festival. The film was then screened at other international festivals in USA, Lativia and Canada. Amartya's latest short fiction 'Hoyto Kobitar Jonyo (In Poetic Hues) was there in the 'Court Metrage' section of the 68th Festival de Cannes, 2015 and it won the Best Film award at the Moab International Film Festival, Utah, USA.
Apart from films, Amartya is also the author of two books ... "˜Ekush (21)' and "˜Shatarupa' which are compilations of his poems on love, death and the dark sides of human nature.