Mrinal Sen

Mrinal Sen was an Indian filmmaker and a nominated Member of the Indian parliament. Sen directed films primarily in Bengali and Hindi. Along with his contemporaries Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, he pioneered the New Wave cinema in India. Sen was an ardent Marxist. His earlier films are characterized by their left-leaning, often Marxist approaches to Indian society. Sen won the National Film Awards 18 times, next only to Ray. He was made the Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1985. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2008 and the Order of Friendship in 2005. The same year, he was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award his contribution to Indian cinema. He is considered to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. He is the only Indian filmmaker along with Satyajit Ray whose films have been awarded at the big three film festivals namely the Cannes film festival, Venice Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival.