Arjun Gourisaria

Arjun Gourisaria (born 1964, Calcutta, India) is an Indian Editor, Filmmaker, Producer, Entrepreneur, Film educator and Musician. A major figure in Indian advertising filmmaking between 1995 and 2010, Arjun has also won several awards for his editing work in critically acclaimed films like Tanvir ka Safarnamahttps://search.lib.asu.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991027265309703841&context=L&vid=01ASU_INST:01ASU&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=sub,exact,%20Anticensorship%20activists,AND&mode=advanced,,, Gulabi Gang and Shut Up Sona,,.
His production house, Black Magic Motion Pictures Ltd., produced the first Bengali language sci-fi film Patalgharhttps://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/enter in 2003. The film went on to receive several awards and was screened at The Children's Film Festival Cairo, The Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Films, The Neuchatel International Film Festival Switzerland and The Times BFI London Film Festival.
Arjun's directorial feature, Sthaniya Sambaad (Spring in the Colony), won the best film award at the New York Indian Film Festival.
Arjun is also a trained Hindustani Classical Musician and currently resides in Kolkata concentrating on his first love, music.
==Early Life and Background==
Arjun Gourisaria was born on 19th December, 1964 in Calcutta, India. His mother Renu Gourisaria is a retired school teacher and the author of From Zakaria Street to Mayfair Road, a memoir which also records the patterns of migration and development of kinship networks among the Marwari community, people from Rajasthan who started making Calcutta their home since the early 18th century. His father, Lakshmi Narayan Gourisaria after finishing his schooling in Narayangunj, Dhaka (Part of Bangladesh, then East Pakistan) went on to study law at the Lincoln's Inn, London. In 2000, Arjun's paternal uncle, Satya Narayan Gourisaria, was honored by the Government of India with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri for his contribution to the propagation of Indian music, art and films in the United Kingdom.
After completing his schooling from St. Lawrence High School, Kolkata, Arjun went on, in 1986, to become a gold-medalist graduate in Economics from Jadavpur University. During his school and college years he also pursued learning Hindustani Classical Music under the tutelage of Shri Sujoy Basu of the Imdadkhani Gharana.
In 1987, Arjun joined the Film and Television Institute of India to study Film Editing.
==Career==
===Early Career===
Since 1989 Arjun worked as a freelance editor in the Bengali television and film industry, during which time he also edited the television series Krishnakant ka Vasiyatnama (based on Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel Krishnakanter Will) directed by eminent theatre and film personality Shyamanand Jalan. Simultaneously, he also started producing and directing advertising films for leading agencies like J Walter Thompson and Clarion Advertising Services.
===Black Magic Motion Pictures Ltd.===
In 1995, he teamed up with Abhijit Chaudhuri (Dadu) and Niti Sonee Gourisaria to form Black Magic Motion Pictures Ltd. One of the company's first major productions was a Hindi television series, Tasveer, which featured eminent national stars like Alok Nath, Raza Murad and MunMun Sen. The series was written by Rashid Iqbal and shot by Avik Mukhopadhyay.
Black Magic Motion Pictures Ltd. soon went on to become one of the largest advertising film production companies in India and under the leadership of Rangan Chakravarty went on to produce some of West Bengal's most popular reality television shows like Rojgere Ginni (The Earning wife), Hau Mau Khnau and Alpha Pentathlon.
During it's tenure Black Magic Motion Pictures Ltd. produced television commercials for leading brands like Ambuja Cement, Asian Paints, Big Babool, Cadbury's, Colgate, Happydent, Sprite etc., working with the leading agencies of the country including Ogilvy, headed by Piyush Pandey and McCann, headed by Prasoon Joshi.
Under Arjun's leadership Black Magic Motion Pictures Ltd. also went on to produce four Bengali feature films including the award winning Patalghar (2003), directed by Abhijit Chaudhuri (Dadu), Sthaniya Sambaad (Spring in the Colony) (2009) directed by Arjun Gourisariahttps://www.cinestaan.com/people/arjun-gourisaria-47077, and Moinak Biswas and Tin Ekke Teen directed by Malay Bhattacharya.
===Editing Work===
* Editor, 'Shut Up Sona', a documentary on the singer Sona Mohapatra directed by Deepti Gupta, 2018.,,.
* Story Editor, 'Who Killed Gandhi', Canadian feature-length television documentary directed by award-
winning Canadian film-maker Anand Ramayya, 2013.
* Editor, 'Gulabi Gang', an award-winning feature-length documentary on a women's movement, directed by
Nishtha Jain, 2011/2012.
* Editor, 'Tanvir Ka Safarnama' (Tanvir's Travelogue), a feature-length documentary by Ranjan Kamath on
Indian theatre director Habib Tanvir, 2007.
* Editor, 'Dubai Return', Hindi feature film directed by Aditya Basu Bhattacharya, 2006.
* Editor, 'Patalghar', Bengali feature film directed by Abhijit Chaudhuri, 2002. The film was part of the official
selection at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Films, 2003, and the Times-BFI London Film Festival,
2003. It won several awards, including the Indian National Film Awards for Best Debut Film and for Best
Cinematography. It also won, amongst others, the BFJA award for Best Editing.
* Co-editor, 'Skin Deep', a feature-length documentary on women's perception of their self-image and bodies,
directed by Reena Mohan, 1998.
* Editor and Director, 'Jesuits of Southern Bengal', a feature-length study of the relationship of Jesuit priests
and Christianity with the people of Bengal, 1992.
* Editor and Co-director, 'Voice in the Wilderness', a documentary on a uniquely successful environment
movement in the interior villages of Orissa, 1990.
Currently Arjunhttps://www.cinemaazi.com/feature/-a-bottle-in-one-pocket-your-childhood-in-the-other-ritwik-ghatak-s-bombay-poona-years is editing Women's Gurgaon,https://www.womensgurgaon.com/ a film born out of the academic project, Urban Transformation and Gendered Violence in India and South Africa headed by Manali Desai and funded by ESRC.
==Personal Life==
After having tried to make Bombay and, subsequently, Goa, home, Arjun now lives in his city of birth, Kolkata. He resides in Ballygunge with his mother and his partner and devotes time to music.
==Award==
* Silver Lotus, the Indian National Award for Best Editing for feature-length documentary, 'Shut Up Sona',,.
* Silver Lotus, the Indian National Award for Best Editing for feature-length documentary, 'Gulabi Gang'https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/jolly-llb-gulabi-gang-named-for-national-award-lead-superseding-earlier-story-114041600831_1.html,.
* 11th New York Indian Film Festival Award for Best Film for 'Sthaniya Sambaad' (Spring in the Colony),.http://cscs.res.in/irps/inter-asia-cultural-studies-summer-school-2018/sthaniya-sambaad-spring-in-the-colony-arjun-gourisaria-moinak-biswas-2009
* Indian Documentary Producers' Association Award for Best Editing for 'Tanvir Ka Safarnama' (Tanvir's Travelogue), a feature-length documentary on Habib Tanvir, Indian Theatre Director.
* Bengal Film Journalists' Association Award for Best Editing of a Feature Film for 'Patalghar'.
Category:1964 births
Category:People from Kolkata
Category:Indian editors
Category:Filmmakers