Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will give away Mahanayak award to film personalities at a function to observe the 44th death anniversary of Uttam Kumar.
After coming to power in 2011, the state government observes the death anniversary of Uttam Kumar, the most popular actor Bengal has ever produced in a befitting manner.
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Uttam Kumar died on 24, July 1980, four decades ago. The then minister for information and cultural affairs Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee did not allow his mortal remains to be kept at Rabindra Sadan. The state government also did not send any floral wreath as a mark of respect to Uttam Kumar.
Tomorrow’s function will be held at Dhana Dhanya auditorium.
A cultural show will be held where singers, including Arundhuti Home Chowdhury, Nachiketa, Sriradha Bandyopadhyay, Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta, Manomoy Bhattacharya, Raghab Chattopadhyay, Rupankar Bagchi, Lopamitra Mitra, Saikat Mitra, Jayati Chakraborty, Jojo, Bedjyoti Basu, Bibek Kumar, Babul Supriyo and Indranil Sen will sing.
The statue of Uttam Kumar will be garlanded at Tollygunge. A function will be held in the office of Shilpi Sangsad on Lenin Sarani. The organization was set up by Uttam Kumar to provide financial assistance to the poor technicians and artists of Tollygunge. Shilpi Sangsad will organize a 15-day Uttam Kumar film festival at Nandan I, II and III from tomorrow where famous films acted by Uttam Kumar will be shown. Two shows will be held at 3 pm and 6 pm.
Though he had passed away four decades ago, the popularity of Uttam Kumar has not diminished. Kumar had acted in more than 250 Bengali and Hindi films. He had directed, produced and even was the music director in Kal Tumi Aleya, a Bengal movie.
Kumar, who was called a flop master general in Tollywood, got a break in Basu Paribar and never looked back. Satyajit Ray made Nayak, a story of an actor and his struggle to reach the top which was based on his life. Uttam had acted in films directed by Satyajit Ray, Nirmal Dey, Tapan Sinha, Jatrik, Agradut group, Argami group among others.
