Tapas Sen ( 11 September, 1924 – 28 June, 2006) was a noted Indian

stage Stage, stages, or staging may refer to: Arts and media Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly Brit ...

lighting designer, who was an important figure in 20th-century Indian theatre. He started working with

Bengali theatre Bengali theatre primarily refers to theatre performed in the Bengali language. Bengali theatre is produced mainly in West Bengal, and in Bangladesh. The term may also refer to some Hindi theatres which are accepted by the Bengali people. Be ...

movement in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

in the late 1940s, along with noted directors,

Utpal Dutt Utpal Dutt (; 29 March 1929 – 19 August 1993) was an Indian actor, director, and writer-playwright. He was primarily an actor in Bengali theatre, where he became a pioneering figure in Modern Indian theatre, when he founded the "Little The ...

and Shambhu Mitra. Later he became a founding member of the Indian People's Theatre Association's (IPTA), Delhi chapter, and worked closely with

Hindi theatre Hindi theatre is theatre performed in the Hindi language, including dialects such as Braj Bhasha, Khari Boli and Hindustani. Hindi theatre is produced mainly in North India, and some parts of West India and Central India, which include Mumbai a ...

. Through his career stretching five decades he worked theatre directors,

Ebrahim Alkazi Ebrahim Alkazi (18 October 1925 – 4 August 2020) was a Saudi Indian theatre director and drama teacher. A rigid disciplinarian, he instilled in his acting students an awe and reverence that they still carry with them, with several of them ...

, Vijay Tendulkar, and also dancers Sadhana Bose, Chandralekha,

Birju Maharaj Pandit Birju Maharaj (born Brijmohan Nath Mishra; 4 February 1938 – 17 January 2022) was an Indian dancer, composer, singer, and exponent of the Lucknow "Kalka-Bindadin" Gharana of Kathak dance in India. He was a descendant of the Maharaj fa ...

and

Kelucharan Mahapatra Kelucharan Mohapatra (8 January 1926 – 7 April 2004) was a legendary Indian classical dancer, guru, and exponent of Odissi dance, who is credited with the revival and popularizing of this classical dance form in the 20th century. He is t ...

. He was known not only for his creative

stage lighting Stage lighting is the craft of lighting as it applies to the production of theater, dance, opera, and other performance arts.

, but also had a significant impact on the work of leading theatre director of the time. He was awarded the 1974

Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (IAST: Saṅgīta Nāṭaka Akādamī Puraskāra), also known as the Akademi Puraskar, is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. It is the highest Indian recogni ...

in 1974, given by the

Sangeet Natak Akademi Sangeet Natak Akademi (The National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama in English language, English) is the national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India. It is an autonomous body of the Ministry of Culture (India) ...

, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama, and Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 2004.

Career

Tapas Sen was born in 1924 in Dhubri, Assam. His father was Matilal Sen and mother's name was Subarnalata He started his career in theater with the production of a shadow play on the 1943 Bengal famine with

Mrinal Sen Mrinal Sen ( ; 14 May 1923 – 30 December 2018) was a Bengali film director and screenwriter known for his work primarily in Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali, and a few Hindi cinema, Hindi and Telugu cinema, Telugu language films. Regarded as on ...

. Amongst his most noted lighting installations are for '' son et lumière'', sound-and-light-shows at historical venues in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

, like the

Red Fort The Red Fort, also known as Lal Qila () is a historic Mughal Empire, Mughal fort in Delhi, India, that served as the primary residence of the Mughal emperors. Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned the construction of the Red Fort on 12 May 1639, fo ...

Purana Quila Purana Qila () is one of the oldest forts in Delhi, India. It was built by the second Mughal Emperor Humayun and Surid Sultan Sher Shah Suri. The fort forms the inner citadel of the city of Dinpanah. It is located near the expansive Pragati ...

and at the

Qutb Minar The Qutb Minar, also spelled Qutub Minar and Qutab Minar, is a minaret and victory tower comprising the Qutb complex, which lies at the site of Delhi's oldest fortified city, Lal Kot, founded by the Tomar Rajputs. It is a UNESCO World Heritage ...

. He also created lighting for noted stage venues across India including Birla Theatre in Kolkata, Siri Fort Auditorium, Kamani Auditorium in Delhi, and Rabindra Natya Manch in Mumbai. Besides doing

architectural lighting design Architectural lighting design is a field of work or study that is concerned with the design of lighting systems within the built environment, both interior and exterior. It can include manipulation and design of both daylight and electric li ...

for important outdoor venues and monuments like

Khajuraho Khajuraho () is a city, near Chhatarpur in Chhatarpur district of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. One of the most popular tourist destinations in India, Khajuraho has the country's largest group of medieval Hindu and Jain temples, famous ...

Konark Konark is a medium-sized town in the Puri district in the state of Odisha, India. It lies on the coast by the Bay of Bengal, 65 kilometres from the state capital Bhubaneswar. It is the site of the 13th-century Konark Sun Temple, Sun Temple, also ...

, Elephanta and

Ujjain Ujjain (, , old name Avantika, ) or Ujjayinī is a city in Ujjain district of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the fifth-largest city in Madhya Pradesh by population and is the administrative as well as religious centre of Ujjain ...

. In 1988, he designed the lighting for the opening ceremonies of the "Festival of India" at Moscow and Paris, under Dashrath Patel. He was also part of the 50-person team for the lighting design of the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889. Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...

in 2000. The entire design was done by 50 light designers and engineers using 5 lifts for a span of 2 years, 2 months and 5 days. He was awarded the 1974

in Theatre Arts, the highest Indian recognition given to practicing artists, conferred by the

, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama, and subsequently the academy also the highest honour the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 2004. He also was awarded the Kalidas Samman, by

Government of Madhya Pradesh The Government of Madhya Pradesh (abbreviated as MP) or Madhya Pradesh Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and its 55 districts. It consists of an executive, led by the governor of Madhya Prade ...

for the year 1997-98. He was a fellow of the Lighting Designers, UK and the Indian Society of Lighting Engineers. He remained active even into his late years, in January 2006, he did the lighting for a production of

Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

's play ''Visarjan'' which premiered at Madhusudan Mancha in Kolkata. He died on 28 June 2006 in Kolkata due to a heart attack, at the age of 81. His body was donated for medical research.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sen, Tapas 1924 births 2006 deaths Lighting designers Hindi theatre Bengali theatre personalities 20th-century Indian designers Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship People from Dhubri district Artists from Assam