Birendranath Sircar better known as B.N. Sarkar, was one of the stalwarts of Indian Movie Producers in Talkies era of Indian Cinema. Birendranath Sircar was born in the year 1901 in
Bhagalpur. His father was the Advocate-General of Bengal, N. N. Sircar. In his early time he studied Engineering at the University of London and on returning to India he was asked to build a Cinema Hall. From that time, he became ardent to become Indian Film Producers.
He was an Indian film producer and the Founder of New Theatres of
Kolkata in 1931. He made Bengali films that were noted for introducing many Famous Film Directors. He was awarded the
Dadasaheb Phalke Lifetime Achievement Award in the year 1970.
B.N. Sircar attracted a number of directors such as
Promothesh Chandra Barua, Premankor Atharthi,
Debaki Bose,
Dhiren Ganguly,
Bimal Roy and Phani Majumdar. Some of the actors such as
Kundan Lal Saigal,
Pahadi Sanyal, Amar Mullick, Kanan Devi, Chandrabati Devi, Leela Desai and Prithviraj Kapoor were on his payroll. Some of the notable music composers and singers such as Rai Chand Boral, Timir Baran and Pankaj Mullick too were associated with New Theatres productions. He was also the President of the BMPA in the late 1940s.
Under the banner of New Theaters of Kolkata, "Dena Paona", a Bengali movie, written by
Rabindranath Tagore, was released in 1931, directed by Premankur Atarthi. Famous musician Raichand Boral composed for this movie. In 1935, P.C. Barua directed and acted in "
Devdas", based on
Sarat Chandra Chatterjee’s novel Devdas, and this film became phenomenally successful in the industry. In 1935, playback singing was first used in India in the Bengali film Bhagya Chakra by
Nitin Bose. Kanan Devi was the first popular star actress, who appeared in many films produced by New Theatres, under the umbrella of B.N Sirkar. Some of the movies that was produced by B.N Sircar are Natir Puja, Punarjanma, Chirakumar Sabha, Mastuto Bhai, Excuse Me Sir, Chandidas, Mando Ki, Abaseshe,
Sita,
Mirabai, P.Brothers, Mukti, Bidyapati, Nartaki, Pallisamaj and many other films that enthrall the Indian Audience at that time.
He died in the year 1980.
