Pritish Nandy
The Chairman of the Expert Committee on International Film Festival of India, Shri Pritish Nandi presenting a report to the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Smt. Ambika Soni, in New Delhi on August 19, 2010.jpg
Pritish Nandy (left), Ambika Soni (right), IFFI (2010)
Born
Pritish Nandy

(1951-01-15) 15 January 1951 (age 73)
Bhagalpur, Bihar, India
Occupation(s)Poet, Painter, Journalist, Politician
WorksCalcutta if You Must Exile Me”
ChildrenKushan Nandy, Rangita Pritish-Nandy, Ishita Pritish Nandy
RelativesAshis Nandy (brother)
AwardsPadma Shri; EM Forster Literary Award, International Humanitarian Award at the Genesis Awards, US; Bangladesh Liberation War Award

Pritish Nandy (born 15 January 1951) is an Indian poet,[1] painter, journalist, parliamentarian, media and television personality, animal activist and maker of films, TV and streaming content. He was a parliamentarian in the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra, elected on a ticket from the Shiv Sena.[2] He is the author of forty books of poetry in English and has translated poems by other writers from Bengali, Urdu and Punjabi into English as well as a new version of the Isha Upanishad. Apart from these, he has authored books of stories and non fiction as well as three books of translations of classical love poetry from Sanskrit. He was Publishing Director of The Times of India Group and Editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India, The Independent, and Filmfare in the 1980s, all simultaneously.[citation needed] He has held six exhibitions of his paintings and calligraphy. He founded Pritish Nandy Communications Ltd, the content company, in 1993. He also founded People for Animals, India's first animal rights NGO which is currently run by co-founder Maneka Gandhi as chairperson.[citation needed]

Early life

Pritish Nandy was born in Bhagalpur in the state of Bihar in eastern India to a Bengali Christian family.[3] He is the son of Satish Chandra Nandy and Prafulla Nalini Nandy, and brother of Ashis Nandy and Manish Nandy. His daughters Rangita Pritish-Nandy (born 1978) and Ishita Pritish-Nandy (born 1980) are film producers, creators and show runners and his son Kushan Nandy(born 1972) is a film producer, writer and director. Pritish Nandy was educated at La Martiniere College and, briefly, at Presidency College in Kolkata, where he spent the first 28 years of his life.[2] Nandy's mother was a teacher at La Martiniere Calcutta and subsequently became the school's first Indian vice principal.[4]

Literary career

Pritish Nandy's first book of poems Of Gods and Olives was published in 1967. Three further volumes followed in the 1960s and a further 14 volumes were published in the 1970s.[5] During the seventies Nandy edited and published a poetry magazine called Dialogue which published many of India's finest poets in English and other languages, in translation. Dialogue also published over forty books of poems, of first time poets as well as famous poets. It became an iconic platform for contemporary Indian poetry, in English and in translation. In July 1981 Nandy was nominated as a Poet Laureate by the World Academy of Arts and Culture at the Fifth World Congress of Poets in San Francisco. [6] Nandy's poem Calcutta If You Must Exile Me is considered a pioneering classic in modern Indian literature.[7]

The Government of India conferred on him the Padma Shri in 1977 for his contribution to Indian literature.[8] He wrote a new book of poems called “Again” in 2010 after a long hiatus and then, “Stuck on 1/Forty in 2012”. In 2014, his version of the Isha Upanishad was published. His Collected Poems are being published by Seagull Books.

Journalistic career

He was publishing director of The Times of India between 1982 and 1991. He was also managing editor of the group and editor and publisher of The Illustrated Weekly of India during its most successful decade. He was also editor and publisher of ‘’The Independent’’, a newspaper launched by the same group and ‘’Filmfare’’ the popular magazine.

Nandy left The Times of India group to start his own media company Pritish Nandy Communications which was founded in 1993. He is currently chairman of Pritish Nandy Communications Ltd, popularly known as PNC and well known for its films, TV shows and streamed content.

He is also a columnist with The Times of India, Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar and Sangbad Pratidin. His regular column appears in ‘’Mumbai Mirror’’ and his blog on Times Online.[2] Nandy was one of the first internet evangelists in India and opened India's first cyber café in 1996 at Hotel Leela Kempinski in Mumbai.[2]

Political career

Pritish Nandy was elected to the Rajya Sabha representing Maharashtra, the upper house of the Indian parliament, in July 1998. He was elected on a Shiv Sena ticket. He was a member of parliament for six years and was on a number of committees including the National Committee to Celebrate 50 years of Independence, the Parliamentary Committee for Defence, the Parliamentary Committee for Communications, the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs.[2]

Nandy headed the Expert Committee for upgradation of the International Film Festival of India set up by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and submitted its findings to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in 2011.

Humanitarian work

Pritish Nandy has worked for many causes but is best known as the founder of People for Animals, India's largest animal protection NGO that Maneka Gandhi, its co-founder, heads and runs as chairperson. He received the International Humanitarian Award at the Genesis Awards in Los Angeles in 2012, supported by the Humane Society of the United States, the largest animal protection body in the US.[9]

On 28 November 2012 Pritish Nandy founded World Compassion Day, a platform for promoting the values of compassion and ahimsa, and the first lecture on the occasion was delivered in Mumbai by the 14th Dalai Lama who spoke on the ethical treatment of animals.

Film and television

Nandy founded Pritish Nandy Communications in 1993 and remains its non-executive chairman and creative mentor. The company's first programme was a chat show titled The Pritish Nandy Show which aired on Doordarshan, India's public broadcasting channel. This was the first signature show on Indian television. This was followed by Fiscal Fitness: The Pritish Nandy Business Show, India's first weekly business show, on Zee TV.

Nandy has presented over 500 news and current affairs shows on Doordarshan, Zee TV and Sony TV.[2]

He has made 24 films over the years, which have won numerous awards and much critical acclaim. His company Pritish Nandy Communications spearheaded the multiplex film genre in India.

The very successful Original series made by his company, ‘’Four More Shots Please!’’ (for Amazon and streaming on Prime Video) won an International Emmy nomination in 2020 and several other awards across the world. The Amazon India Creative Head called it their most watched show out of India in a quote to the New York Times which carried a major story on the show and its impact.

‘’Modern Love Mumbai’’, his most recent Original show (2022) has been critically acclaimed and opened to a record breaking viewership.

Television content

Films

Film Year Notes
Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi 2001 Producer
Bollywood Calling 2001 Producer
The Mystic Masseur 2001 Producer
Sur 2002 Producer
Kaante 2002 Producer
Jhankaar Beats 2003 Producer
Mumbai Matinee 2003 Producer
Chameli 2004 Producer
Popcorn Khao! Mast Ho Jao 2004 Producer
Shabd 2005 Producer
Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi 2005 Producer
Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena 2005 Producer
Ankahee 2006 Producer
Pyaar Ke Side Effects 2006 Producer
Bow Barracks Forever 2007 Producer
Just Married 2007 Producer
Ugly Aur Pagli 2008 Producer[13]
Meerabai Not Out 2008 Producer
Dheeme Dheeme 2009 Producer
Raat Gayi Baat Gayi? 2009 Producer
Click 2010 Producer
Fatso! 2012 Producer
Shaadi Ke Side Effects 2014 Producer
Mastizaade 2015 producer

Awards

Selected works

Books of poems

Book of Interviews

Verse play

Short stories

Translations

Poetry recordings

Bengali translation

Anthologies edited

Appearances in the following poetry Anthologies

References

  1. ^ "Sahitya Akademi : Who's Who of Indian Writers". Sahitya Akademi. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Rajya Sabha Members Biographical Sketches 1952-2019 (PDF). New Delhi: Rajya Sabha Secretariat. 2019. p. 322.
  3. ^ "My greatest asset is audacity: Pritish Nandy". The Times of India. 27 February 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  4. ^ Pritish Nandy. 'A short pause'. Rediff on the net. accessed September 2007
  5. ^ Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (ed). A History of Indian Literature in English. London: Hurst and Company, p254. accessed September 2007
  6. ^ Authors Guild of India: Indian Author, 1981. accessed September 2007
  7. ^ ""Poetry of Kolkata - Its Hidden Expanse" - by Dr Amitabh Mitra".
  8. ^ "Padma Awards | Interactive Dashboard". dashboard-padmaawards.gov.in. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  9. ^ "The 26th Genesis Awards Nominees". Humane Society. Archived from the original on 6 September 2012. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  10. ^ http://www.rupapublications.co.in/client/Author/Maneka-Gandhi.aspx Archived 9 September 2012 at archive.today, http://www.cscsarchive.org:8081/MediaArchive/essays.nsf/(docid)/33C1A7B42645A91D6525693F00383C8D Archived 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "www.screenindia.com/old/april25/tele.htm". Archived from the original on 6 July 2010. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
  12. ^ "www.screenindia.com/old/20010914/tvbuz.html". Archived from the original on 10 April 2010. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
  13. ^ Pritish Nandy on the Internet Movie Database accessed September 2007
  14. ^ "Pritish Nandy wins International Humanitarian Award - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  15. ^ Pritish Nandy (ed.) Book Excerptise: Strangertime: an anthology of Indian Poetry in English (extensive extracts)
  16. ^ Mandal, Somdatta (15 June 2009). "Rubana Huq, ed. The Golden Treasury of Writers Workshop Poetry. Review : ASIATIC, VOLUME 3, NUMBER 1, JUNE 2009". Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature. 3 (1). journals.iium.edu.my: 126–129. Retrieved 4 September 2018.

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