Durgadas Bannerjee (1893–1943) was an Indian Bengali film actor who appeared in many roles from 1922 to 1943.

Early life

Bannerjee was born on 3 December 1893 to a

zamindar A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the ...

family at Kalikapur, Kolkata. Garia Rajbari was his ancestral home. Bannerjee received his early education from South Garia School in South Garia. He then studied art at the Bou Bazar Art School. Bannerjee later received his degree in art from Government College of Art and Craft in Kolkata.

Career

Bannerjee started working as a Word Writer and Title Writer in silent movies for

Madan Theatre Madan Theatre Company, also known as Madan Theatres Limited or Madan Theatres in short, was a film production company founded by Jamshedji Framji & his partner Kanhaiyalal Kaushik, one of the pioneers of Indian Cinema. History A young Parsi pe ...

and the Taj Mahal Film Company. In 1922, Bannerjee start acting for Taj Mahal, performing small roles under Sisir Bhaduri in films like ''Andhare Alo''. Bannerjee's first leading role was in ''Maan Bhanjan'' (1923). In 1923, Bannerjee briefly acted in plays at the Star Theatre in Kolkata under Aporesh Chandra Mukherjee. One of his prominent roles was as Bikarna in ''Karanarjun'' (1923). That same year, Bannerjee acted in Naresh Mitra's film '' Chandranath''. Bannerjee appeared in over 19 silent movies as a lead actor. In 1931, Bannerjee appeared in the first

Bengali language Bengali, also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Bangla (, , ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. ...

sound film, Dena Paona (1931), which was a major hit. ''Priya Bandhobi'' (1943) was Bannerjee's last film.

Personal life

Bannerjee married Bina pani Banerjee, an

educationalist Education sciences, also known as education studies or education theory, and traditionally called ''pedagogy'', seek to describe, understand, and prescribe education including education policy. Subfields include comparative education, educationa ...

. He was a grand uncle of musician Sudipto “Buti” Banerjee of Bengali rock band,

Cactus A cactus (: cacti, cactuses, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae (), a family of the order Caryophyllales comprising about 127 genera with some 1,750 known species. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, ...

. He died in 1943.

Selected filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bannerjee , Durgadas 1893 births 20th-century Bengalis Bengali Hindus Government College of Art & Craft alumni 1943 deaths Bengali male actors Male actors in Bengali cinema Indian male stage actors Bengali theatre personalities Indian male silent film actors