Victor Banerjee

Victor Banerjee is an actor who has worked in Indian and international films and on the stage in Calcutta and Bombay, in everything from musicals and Shakespeare to opera and folk theatre. He is the only actor to have worked with both David Lean and Satyajit Ray. He was named for the Padma Bhushan in 2022 in the field of art, from West Bengal ^[1].

A Passage to India

Banerjee was born in Calcutta on 15 October 1946; his father was an Army officer who later became a tea planter, and he grew up in Assam ^[2]. David Lean’s A Passage to India won three Oscars and earned him a nomination for a British Academy award ^[2]. He was the first Asian actor to play the lead role of Jesus Christ on the British stage ^[2]. He also played Paramahansa Yogananda in The Answer and Rabindranath Tagore in the Argentine film Thinking of Him ^[2].

He has won National Film Awards in three categories, as actor, cinematographer and director, and in 2020 received the Satyajit Ray Memorial Award for lifetime achievement ^[2]. His documentary on Indian Railways won a gold award at the Houston International Film Festival ^[2].

Beyond the screen

He played in Calcutta’s football and hockey leagues until he was 52 ^[2]. He runs the Moran Blind School near Dibrugarh in Assam, and founded the first union for film extras in the West Bengal film industry ^[2]. He is also a board member of People for Animals ^[2].