ABSTRACT
Over the last 20 years, if there is one ‘regional’ film-maker in India who acquired a pan-Indian identity and was actively wooed by top stars of mainstream Hindi cinema it is without doubt Rituparno Ghosh. The only other name that comes to mind is Mani Ratnam; but Mani is a more commercially inclined director, so it is not surprising that stars vie with each other to be cast by him. In contrast, Rituparno was definitely a champion of the ‘small’ more intimate school of film-making, and thus it is remarkable that stars like Aishwarya Rai, Amitabh Bachchan, Priety Zinta, Ajay Devgn among others were so eager to star in his films. And therein lies the importance of being Rituparno Ghosh. By sheer dint of merit, he carved out a niche for himself where he could actually get these top stars to willingly deglamorise themselves and go against the grain in his films.
