All About UB

A journalist-film critic based in New Delhi, Guwahati (Assam)-born Utpal Borpujari has been writing on cinema, culture, literature, North-East India, politics, science, et al.

Winner of the Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus)Award for the Best Film Critic at the 50th National Film Awards of India, 2003, he became a journalist after doing an M.Tech in Applied Geology from University of Roorkee (now IIT-Roorkee).

Though he has been staying in India’s capital New Delhi for professional reasons since 1994, he returns home to Assam at least once a year and maintains strong connections with his roots.

A member of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI), he has served on several prestigious film juries:

1.  The Jury for Best Writing on Cinema, 51st National Film Awards of India, 2004

2. FIPRESCI Jury at the MAMI International Film Festival, Mumbai, 2006

3. Critics Jury of the Indian Competition section at the 10th Mumbai International Festival of Short, Animnation and Documentary Films (MIFF), 2008

4. NETPAC (Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema)-FIPRESCI Jury at the 11^th Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian & Arab Cinema, New Delhi, 2009

5. Panel of 10 critics & 10 directors whose selection of 20 films each led to the Top 20 of Indian cinema ‘Master List’ for the ‘T20 of Indian Cinema’ event at 40^th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa, 2009 (www.t20ofindiancinema.com)

As a critic and journalist, he has covered Cannes, Nantes, IFFI, MAMI, 3^rd Eye, MIFF and Osian’s Cinefan film festivals over the years.

He has edited the official catalogue of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 & 2008. He has also been a member of the preview committee to select international films as well as the 2 Indian entries (from among the Indian Panorama films) for the Competition Section at the 39^th  IFFI (2008) and 40^th IFFI (2009).

He is associated with Film Trust India, New Delhi; Assam Cine Art Society, Guwahati; Cine Art Society, Asom (CineASA), Guwahati; and Cineman, New Delhi. He has contributed cinema-related essays to various publications, and served as an honorary consultant to the 1^st Ahmedabad International Film Festival (2009).

Prior to his current assignment with the New Delhi bureau of English daily Deccan Herald (www.deccanherald.com, www.deccanheraldepaper.com), he worked with The Sentinel (www.sentinelassam.com) in Guwahati, wire agency Press Trust of India (PTI, www.ptinews.com) in New Delhi, www.indiatimes.con in New Delhi, and the New Delhi bureau of Deccan Herald, and the New Delhi bureau of Sakaal Times (www.sakaaltimes.com)  – in that order.

He has conceptualised and co-scripted the documentary “Resurgent Manas” directed by Gautam Saikia, produced by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.

His association with the film world extends to being script consultant to two feature films “As the River Flows” (Hindi) / “Ekhon Nedekha Nodir Xhipaare” (Assamese) by Bidyut Kotoky and “Banphool – The Wild Flower” (pre-production) By Biswajit Bora. Also a consultant to Biswajeet Bora’s documentary “Angel of the Aborigines: Verrier Elwin”.

He has also curated the first-ever South Asian Film Festival in the Maldives in 2007 and a pacakge of Assamese films commemorating 70 years of Assam’s film industry at the 3rd Eye Asian Film Festival, Mumbai, in 2006.

He has co-authored the book “Secret Killings of Assam” (Human Rights Law Network/Nanda Talukdar Foundation) with journalists Mrinal Talukdar and Kaushik Deka, on the spate of killings of many innocent of a bunch of “secret killers” in Assam in the late 1990s, and is also part of a team that has brought out the first-ever comprehensive coffee table book on Assam, published by Nanda Talukdar Foundation, covering all interesting aspects about the state.

He lives in New Delhi with his wife and two sons, and is associated with the North-East Media Forum, the platform for journalists from North-East India working in the Indian capital.