Chandita Mukherjee
Chandita Mukherjee | |
---|---|
Born | 1952 |
Died | 18 April 2023 |
Nationality | Indian |
Alma mater | University of Delhi, Film and Television Institute of India |
Occupation | Filmmaker |
Known for | Bharat Ki Chhap |
Chandita Mukherjee (1952-2023) was an Indian documentary film maker and activist. She was the recipient of two National Film Awards. She also directed the TV series Bharat Ki Chhap on the history of science and technology in India.
Early life and education
Chandita Mukherjee was born in 1952. As a teenager, she moved to Delhi, and studied Sociology at Miranda House, University of Delhi. After graduation, she enrolled for a film direction course at Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). She was among the first women graduates of FTII's direction course. She braved family opposition and worked her way through the course, supporting herself by doing a number of odd jobs.[1]
Career
After graduating from FTII in 1975, Mukherjee started her career making TV programmes for children with the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE).[1] Right from the outset, she worked on issues related to science and technology in India. When the SITE project ended in 1976, she moved to Bombay (now Mumbai), where she would live and work for the rest of her life.
In 1985, she set up Comet Media Foundation, a non-profit organisation that situates itself at the juncture of science, technology and society.
During the mid-1980s, Mukherjee was engaged in an ambitious project - the making of Bharat Ki Chhap, a TV series on the history of science and technology in India. She and her team travelled extensively across the country for the shooting of the series, which took more than four years to complete.[2] It was aired on Doordarshan in 1989.
In 1991, her film Totanama won the National Film Award for the best short fiction film. In 1994 she received a second National Award for Another Way of Learning.
In 2019, the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) chose Chandita Mukherjee as the Executive Producer of a collaborative documentary entitled Displacement and Resilience. Mukherjee got five other women filmmakers from around the world to direct individual segments. Apart from coordinating the whole project, she directed one segment and edited the final version of the film.[3]
She was a member of the National Focus Group on Educational Technology, set up by NCERT as part of the NCF 2005 exercise.[4]
Filmography
- Ghadwa art - Changing traditions (1979)
- Bharat Ki Chhap (1989)
- Totanama (1991)
- Another Way of Learning (1994)
- Slowly but Surely (1997)
- Displacement and Resilience (2019)
Awards and honours
National film awards
- 39th National Film Awards: Totanama - best short fiction film [5]
- 42nd National Film Awards: Another Way of Learning - best scientific film [6]
References
- ^ a b "WCC pays tributes to documentary filmmaker Chandita Mukherjee". The Times of India. 19 April 2023. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
- ^ Rahman, M (30 April 1989). "TV serial 'Bharat Ki Chhap' explores history of Indian science". India Today. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
- ^ "Displacement & Resilience". iawrt.org. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
- ^ "Position Paper: National Focus Group on Educational Technology" (PDF). ncert.nic.in. NCERT. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
- ^ "39th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 July 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
- ^ "42nd National Film Festival" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2023.