About Book
Rituparno Ghosh (1963-2013), one of India's most
eminent cinema directors, left behind a body of work—
both finished and unfinished—which have continued to
attract both general and scholarly attention. Yet, there is
little or no access to the primary documentary sources
of his work, such as screenplays, director's notes,
character sketches and so on. Translating for Rituparno
attempts to fill this gap by bringing together translations
of the screenplays and subtitles of some of his most
important films, carried out by his longtime collaborator
Anjana Basu, herself a novelist, poet and advertising
professional. It was advertising which brought the duo
together in the early years of the director's career, and
Anjana Basu's translations of Rituparno's written output
till the end of his career constitute a fascinating example
of artistic collaboration and the invisible labour behind
cinema. While many of the early translations are lost, this
collection brings together translations of screenplays of
Chokher Bali, Raincoat, Antarmahal, Dosar, Last Lear,
Khela, Parapar, Chitrangada, Satyanweshi, Sunglass, as
well as unfinished projects such as ‘Guru’, and ‘The
Princely Impostor’.
About Author
Anjana Basu is an accomplished author and
translator. In 2004, Anjana was awarded a
Hawthornden Fellowship in Scotland, where she
worked on her second novel, Black Tongue. Anjana
Basu's career in advertising led her to cross paths
with Rituparno Ghosh. This marked the beginning
of a long and fruitful collaboration, during which
she worked on the subtitles for many of his films.
In addition to her work on subtitles, Anjana also
made a significant contribution to his film The Last
Lear, for which she wrote the dialogues. Currently,
Anjana Basu lives in Calcutta, where she works as
an advertising consultant. Her byline has appeared
in Outlook, The Statesman, Vogue India, Conde
Nast Traveller and Outlook Traveller.