All About UB

A Film Critic/Journalist (now getting into filmmaking) 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)

6. Jury to select scripts at the The Indian Children’s Film Lab (International screen writing lab for Indian children’s cinema 2009), organized by Eleeanora Images (India) and Performing Arts Labs (PAL), UK

7. Short Film Competition Jury at the 1^st Pravasi Film Festival, New Delhi, January 3-6, 2010

8. FIPRESCI jury at the 34^th Montreal World Film Festival, Aug 26-Sept 6, 2010.

9. 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), 40^th IFFI (2009) and 41^st IFFI (2010)

As a critic and journalist, he has covered Cannes, Nantes, Montreal, 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 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 the feature film “As the River Flows” (Hindi) / “Ekhon Nedekha Nodir Xhipaare” (Assamese) by Bidyut Kotoky (produced by the National Film Development Corporation) and a consultant to Biswajeet Bora’s documentary “Angel of the Aborigines: Verrier Elwin”.

He is associated with Film Trust India, New Delhi (as a trustee); 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).

He has also curated the first-ever South Asian Film Festival in the Maldives in 2007, a pacakge of Assamese films commemorating 70 years of Assam’s film industry at the 3rd Eye Asian Film Festival, Mumbai, in 2006, and the Guwahati International Film Festival, 2005.

He is currently the Artistic Director with Delhi-based filmmaking concern Eleeanora Images (www.eimagesindia.com), whose founder Nila Madhab Panda has directed the highly-acclaimed Hindi feature film “I am Kalam” apart from numerous documentaries, television serials and corporate & ad films. He is also the Artistic Director with the CineASA International Film Festival (Guwahati), and the Director of the Guwahati International Short Film Festival. He is also a member of the editorial boards of the website www.dearcinema.com.

He writes on cinema and various other subjects in several prestigious publications. He has earlier worked with prestigious media organizations like Deccan Herald (www.deccanherald.com, www.deccanheraldepaper.com), The Sentinel (www.sentinelassam.com), Press Trust of India (PTI, www.ptinews.com), www.indiatimes.com and Sakaal Times (www.sakaaltimes.com).

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 (as editor/contributor/stakeholder) 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 (both 2009).

He has also contributed an essay, titled “Cinema of Reality”, in the book “Hollywood Bollywood: The Politics of Crossover Films”, edited by Saibal Chatterjee & Anwar Jamal and published by Vani Prakashan, New Delhi (2008).

Currently, he is developing scripts for feature films in Assamese/Hindi/English as well as concepts for several documentary films, apart from having completed shooting of a documentary.

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.