birth_place birth_date yearsactive article_title name occupation
calcutta , bengal presidency , british india c. 1924 1950 -- 1989 shekhar chatterjee
 shekhar chatterjee actor , director
shekhar chatterjee

shekhar chatterjee -lrb- born c. 1924 in calcutta -rrb- is a bengali actor and director .
chatterjee began his career in the bengali theatre in the 1950s .
he was associated with a number of leftist theatre groups , including the commmunist party 's indian people 's theatre association , utpal dutt 's little theatre group , and joan littlewood 's theatre workshop , as well as his own group , theatre unit , which he formed in 1958 .
as a stage actor he was well known for his shakespearean roles and for playing shardul singh in dutt 's 1965 play `` kallol '' .
his directorial work focused on works by german-language playwrights bertold brecht , friedrich dürrenmatt , peter handke , and franz xaver kroetz .
chatterjee 's brecht productions were rarely adapted to a local setting , and while critics unanimously praised this approach as `` authentic '' , his colleague dutt attacked it for failing to communicate brecht 's political symbolism to an indian audience .
chatterjee was also active in bengali , indian , and world cinema , having acted in nearly a hundred films by the time he was sixty .
among his first credited roles was in agradoot 's 1955 film noir `` sabar uparey '' ; he later had memorable roles in several of mrinal sen 's films , including `` bhuvan shome '' , `` ek adhuri kahani '' , `` chorus '' , and `` mrigayaa '' .
his biggest international role was that of huseyn shaheed suhrawardy in richard attenborough 's biographical epic `` gandhi '' .
casting director dolly thakore recommended chatterjee for the role after seeing him onstage in calcutta and noting that he shared suhrawardy 's large stature .
in 1983 , chatterjee directed the film `` vasundhara '' , which was awarded best bengali film at the 31st national film awards .
the directorate of film festivals cited it for `` its sincere attempt to depict the struggle against social injustice '' .
