Sunday, October 08, 2006

Bhaskar Bhattacharyya

Telegraph.co.uk. - 06/03/2006

Bhaskar Bhattacharyya, who has drowned aged 56 while swimming off the coast of Chennai (formerly Madras), was a documentary film-maker, a consultant to musicians and film crews working in India and a scholar of Hindu and Sufi mysticism.
An adviser on several British television series set in India, including The Jewel in the Crown (1984) and Great Railway Journeys of the World (1989), Bhattacharyya inspired many young Indian film-makers. As director of programmes for the Business India channel he was able to help many of them further their careers.
His technical knowledge of film-making was worn as lightly as his understanding of ancient mystics and shamanism; he was chiefly noticeable for his infectious laugh and enthusiasm for the diverse culture of his birthplace.

Bhaskar Bhattacharyya was born in Darjeeling on June 4 1950, the son of two school-teachers. When young Bhaskar was five, his parents left India for Kampala, Uganda, where they lived for the next 11 years before moving to London, where he took his A levels and read Physics at City University.
year into the course, however, he dropped out of university. After a spell spent living in squats in north London, he joined the hippy trail, travelling through Europe, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, finally ending up in India.
For the next six years he lived among the sadhus (holy men) and shamans, befriending the Baul musicians and going on to study Sanskrit at Vanarisi (Benares) on the banks of the Ganges. During this period he collaborated with the film-maker George Lunneau, after which Bhattacharyya went on to form his own production company.
In 1976 he returned to London to continue his academic exploration of Hindu and Sufi mysticism. By the 1980s he had built up a reputation as a respected adviser and facilitator for western media in India.

Bhattacharyya made a number of documentaries about Indian culture and wrote articles for the Independent, The Times of India and the South China Morning Post. In 1993 he published a collection of 84 Baul song lyrics, The Path of the Mystic Lover: Baul songs of passion and ecstasy (co-written with Nik Douglas). At the time of his death he was working on a novel about the poet Shelley, with whom he felt a great affinity.
Bhattacharyya, who died on February 10 while on a film shoot for Channel 4, married Rohini Pathania in 1988. She survives him with their son.

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Sunday, October 08, 2006

Bhaskar Bhattacharyya
Telegraph.co.uk. - 06/03/2006

Bhaskar Bhattacharyya, who has drowned aged 56 while swimming off the coast of Chennai (formerly Madras), was a documentary film-maker, a consultant to musicians and film crews working in India and a scholar of Hindu and Sufi mysticism.
An adviser on several British television series set in India, including The Jewel in the Crown (1984) and Great Railway Journeys of the World (1989), Bhattacharyya inspired many young Indian film-makers. As director of programmes for the Business India channel he was able to help many of them further their careers.
His technical knowledge of film-making was worn as lightly as his understanding of ancient mystics and shamanism; he was chiefly noticeable for his infectious laugh and enthusiasm for the diverse culture of his birthplace.

Bhaskar Bhattacharyya was born in Darjeeling on June 4 1950, the son of two school-teachers. When young Bhaskar was five, his parents left India for Kampala, Uganda, where they lived for the next 11 years before moving to London, where he took his A levels and read Physics at City University.
year into the course, however, he dropped out of university. After a spell spent living in squats in north London, he joined the hippy trail, travelling through Europe, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, finally ending up in India.
For the next six years he lived among the sadhus (holy men) and shamans, befriending the Baul musicians and going on to study Sanskrit at Vanarisi (Benares) on the banks of the Ganges. During this period he collaborated with the film-maker George Lunneau, after which Bhattacharyya went on to form his own production company.
In 1976 he returned to London to continue his academic exploration of Hindu and Sufi mysticism. By the 1980s he had built up a reputation as a respected adviser and facilitator for western media in India.

Bhattacharyya made a number of documentaries about Indian culture and wrote articles for the Independent, The Times of India and the South China Morning Post. In 1993 he published a collection of 84 Baul song lyrics, The Path of the Mystic Lover: Baul songs of passion and ecstasy (co-written with Nik Douglas). At the time of his death he was working on a novel about the poet Shelley, with whom he felt a great affinity.
Bhattacharyya, who died on February 10 while on a film shoot for Channel 4, married Rohini Pathania in 1988. She survives him with their son.

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