Apparently, there is a lot more to Late Rituparno Ghosh other than the films he made. No doubt, he was brazen in public life but he was quite the opposite in private.
Of course, he was an erudite and a non-conformist but he would indulge himself in books and cinema when left alone.
To the surprise of everyone, students of Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI) will get an opportunity to get a glimpse of Rituparno's mindspace. Rituparno's brother Indranil Ghosh gifted approximately 1,500 books plus 600 DVDs from the late filmmaker's private collection to the institute. It can be recollected that this institute hosted the I&B ministry's Rituparno Ghosh retrospective from 8th to 11th August.
Prof Shyamal Karmakar, HOD and Editing, who made a 6 minute film on Rituparno on the event, narrated that Indranil and his wife, Dipannita graced the inaugural program. They had announced in the event that they would like to share with the institute books and DVDs from the filmmaker's collection. They have already received this rare gift. In addition, a section of their library is accommodating the classics and they will do their best to preserve the collection.
Karmakar revealed that the books and films ranges from The Mahabharata: A Modern Rendering by Ramesh Menon to an autographed copy of Amitabh Bachchan: The Legend. There is everything. He highlighted that filmmaking is a lot about storytelling. Additionally, this collection would assist their students understand Rituparno Ghosh much better. Precisely, it is bound to open up new horizons for them. While handling the books and the DVDs, he could feel the depth of the filmmaker, apart from his knowledge and world view. Moreover, during the making of the film on Rituparno, he interacted a lot with Dipannita, who was the filmmaker's classmate too. In fact, the collection is all about his memories and they will take care of it with a lot of affection.
Indranil declared that this is their gift to the students of filmmaking. He hopes it will help the budding directors.
Some of the books gifted includes Katha Prize Stories, Roland Barthes Collection, The Mahabharata: A Modern Rendering, Gitanjali Translation, Love in a Dead Language, Rabindranath Tagore: The Myriad-Minded Man, Steve Jobs, Amitabh Bachchan: The Legend, Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography and Nicole Kidman: The Biography.