The intersection of theatre and film is sometimes blamed by theatre-activists (like that dada in Satyajit Ray’s Nayak), but it has also been very useful for progressing the cause of theatre, viz. reaching to a greater numbr of public. Since the days of Nabanna, artists like Sambhu Mitra and Tripti Mitra have been attached to films like Dharti Ke lal. Later we have seen Utpal Dutt doing comic roles in Hindi commercial films (Bharucha calls baffonery). Ajitesh acted in films as well as Rudraprasad, later on. Manoj Mitra collaborated with Tapan Sinha in his filmatizing the drama Sajano Bagan – written, directed and acted in by Manoj Mitra himself – into Bancharamer Bagan, the film; he later wrote a monograph on that transition.
The latest generation of theatre workers, most famously Suman Mukhopadhyay, is working full-time in films. See The Telegraph, 7 Feb 2010. Link.
