Partho Sen-Gupta

Partho Sen-Gupta (also spelled Partho Sen Gupta or Partho Sengupta pronounced Partho Shen-Goopto) is an independent film director and screenwriter of Indian origin.

Biography
Born in Mumbai (Bombay), on 2 September 1965. He has been working in cinema since the age of seventeen, starting his career as an apprentice in the Art department, in the studios of "Bollywood" in Mumbai. He worked with an Indian Art director Bijon Dasgupta on the sets of big budget commercial Hindi films like Sagar and Mr. India among others.

After having spent a few years and finishing his apprenticeship he became Assistant Art director. In 1988, he worked on his first film as Art director or Production designer, an Indian art movie called Main Zinda Hoon (I am Alive) directed by Sudhir Mishra. He then set up his design studio working on numerous advertising films and Art movies, designing sets and specializing in real-time SFX. He won the Best Art Director Award in 1989. He also worked as Production designer on the French film Nocturne Indien directed by Alain Corneau shot in Mumbai.

In 1993, he was selected to do a 2 month summer workshop at FEMIS, the French film institute in Paris. During the workshop he directed his first short film La Derniere… based on Samuel Beckett's radio play - Krapp's Last Tape. He was then was awarded a three and a half year full scholarship to study film direction at the same school.

During the film school years, he made four short fiction films Le Cochon, La Partition, Trajet Discontinu, and La Petite Souris which took him to different European film festivals and won awards.

After graduation in 1996/97, he decided to live between the two cities, Paris and Mumbai, and started writing his first feature film screenplay based in India called Hava Aney Dey (Let the Wind Blow) which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2004. It was selected in many International film festivals and won awards. The film is part of the Global Lens 2008 series of the Global Film Initiative and premiered at the MoMA NYC, in January 2008.

He was invited by the Cannes Film Festival in 2005 as a part of a group of promising young film-makers by the Cinéfondation. In 2005, he made a documentary film The Way of Beauty on the Indo-fusion group Shakti which was released on the DVD in May 2006.

He is currently working on his second feature film project Fallen Hero (produced by Independent Movies LTD). The film will be shot in Rajasthan, India and it received the Hubert Bals Fund at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Arunoday - The Sunrise, a new film project by Partho Sen-Gupta was selected among the 30 projects at the 11th Pusan promotion Plan (3 to 6 October 2008) at the Pusan International Film Festival and is due to commence production shortly. The Sunrise is the only Indian project in the selection. Source: Variety Asia

The Way Of Beauty
Documentary / Video / 180 mins / Universal Jazz France / 2006

Directed by Partho Sen-Gupta

The first documentary for the fusion group Shakti with John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, U. Srinivas & V. Selvaganesh called 'The Way of Beauty' which released in Europe in May 2006. (U.S & Canada release in the Summer of 2006) This DVD features a 60 minute documentary (Shakti Timeless) on the band starting from the early seventies. John and Zakir speak about their beginnings, their era with L. Shankar and T.H. Vinayakram.

The film was screened at the Durban International Film Festival 2007 from the 20 June to the 1 July 2007 in Durban, South Africa.

The DVD also features:

45 minutes of sound check footage of Remember Shakti before a Concert at the New Morning in Paris 2004
 * 55 minutes of a historic concert called Saturday Nights in Bombay (Mumbai, India) in 2000.
 * Two Live Concerts of the band shot with the original band (with L. Shakar & "Vikku" T. H Vinayakram from 1976 (Montreux Jazz Festival) as well as Montreux Jazz 2004.
 * Also contains clips from Mahavishnu Orchestra in Syracuse, U.S 1972. (Never seen before)

Source: Jazz News All about Jazz .com

Hava Aney Dey
A film by Partho Sen-Gupta

Fiction Feature Film / 93 mins / 35 mm / Hindi stl-English / French / German / 2004

India, in the shadow of a nuclear arms race, savage capitalism, rising fanaticism, two young boys Arjun and Chabia err in the quest to change their destiny.

‘Hava Aney Dey’ in Hindi was shot on location in Mumbai, in October – November 2003 with a mixed crew composed of French & Indian technicians. It is an Indo-French co production between Santocha Productions, Paris and Mystique Media Ltd, Mumbai. It is also funded partly by the Fonds Sud, of the French Foreign Ministry and the French Cultural Ministry. It was post produced partly in Mumbai and Paris.

Awards:
 * Best Film Award (Durban International Film Festival)


 * BBC Audience Award (Commonwealth Film Festival)


 * Special Jury Mention (Hong Kong International Film Festival)

Film Festival Selections:
 * Berlin International Film Festival-Hava Aney Dey Page
 * Hong Kong International Film Festival Hong Kong
 * Commonwealth Film FestivalManchester, United Kingdom
 * Durban International Film FestivalDurban, South Africa
 * 3rd Eye Asian Film Festival Mumbai, India
 * Tokyo Filmex
 * 3 continents Film Festival(Nantes, France)
 * River to River Indian Film FestivalFirenze, Italy

Trajet Discontinu
A film by Partho Sen-Gupta French / Short Fiction Feature / 24' / 35 mm / 1997 / Diploma Film

Aslam, a Kashmiri migrant, finds himself in the countryside of the South of France. He has been ditched there by illegal migration crossers. He is saved by an old lady who hides him in her house. though they do not speak the same language, a friendship develops between the two. But the French police are searching for Aslam.

Awards:


 * 'Young Actors Jury Award for Best Short Film', (European Film Festival of Angers, France)
 * Special Jury Award - Cerruti Foundation

Film Festivals Selections:


 * European First Film Festival, (Premiers Plans, Festival de Angers) Angers, France
 * International Short Film Festival of Aix-en-Provence (Festival Tout Courts), Aix en Provence, France

La Petite Souris
A film by Partho Sen-Gupta

No dialogues- Only music and sound FX / Short Fiction Feature / 9' / 35 mm / 1997

A young woman lives in the countryside in the Ile de France region. She takes the number of public transport systems to get to work in the center of Paris. Her schedule works like clockwork thanks to the numerous electronic gadgets that she has in her house. One morning a little mouse eats away the electric cables. She gets up late and she misses her bus. She decides to avail of 'other' modes (horseback, row boat etc.) of transport to get to her work.



La Partition
A film by Partho Sen-Gupta ''

No dialogues- Only music and sound FX / Short Fiction Feature / 3' / 35 mm / 1996

'' A short film with no dialogues, in association with a composer from the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris

A composer tries very hard to write a partition, in his top floor 'chambre de bonne' in Paris. His attempts to concentrate are foiled by external disturbances, noisy neighbours and city sounds. He finally decides to uses these urban sounds to compose his music.

Le Cochon


A film by Partho Sen-Gupta ''

French / Short Fiction Feature / 12'27 / 35 mm / 1996

''

Phillip lives in a council flat on the outskirts of Paris. He has a lot of problems in life, unemployed, divorced and broke. He owes a lot of money and has to find a solution very quickly.



Film Festivals Selections:



International short film festival of Clemont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France



Locarno International Film Festival, [[Locarno], Switzerland]

SehSũchte International Student Film Festival, Potsdam-Babelsburg, Germany