Ananya Chakraborti (Chatterjee) (b 1958…) filmmaker, television journalist, writer and activist hold a Masters degree in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University. She came to be known for her role in preventing a kidnap from a Metro station in June 1992, which inspired a novel and an award winning feature film – Dahan. An IAWRT (International Association of Women in Radio and Television in Norway) fellow, she worked, shared and networked with television houses, government and non-governmental organizations in Silence and South Asia. She was chosen as an international visitor from India by the United States and had the exposure of meeting, networking and sharing with leading experts in the field of television and women’s organization in the US.

She made a number of significant documentary films while working at Television International ( TVI ), New Delhi namely Half Way Home (1995); The School That Karmi Soren Built (1996); Uttaradhikar 1997) Najaayaz (1998); Aids, Lies and Documentaries (1999) As a freelance film maker, she made two most important documentaries on women’s empowerment in the context of changing India namely Daughters of the 73rd Amendment, Act I in 1999 for the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi and The Politics of Silence in 2002 for Sanhita, an NGO in Calcutta. Both these documentaries have become a pioneering text in understanding women’s issues in the country. As part of a media fellowship with a television production house in Sri Lanka, she also made a documentary on the peace process – A Srilanka Diary (2000).

Since 1992, Ananya played an active role in the women’s movement and empowerment in Bengal and India through her columns, articles in various dailies and particularly her documentary films, which are used by various universities, institutes and NGOs and as an awareness and training material for women’s education both in urban and rural Bengal, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

She has extensively worked in the television media. She anchored 200 episodes of Ei Muhurte (Just Now) on socially relevant issues on TARA; anchored 20 episodes of a weekly live and phone-in Gender programme “Ananya” on Doordarshan. She is also the series producer for a number of Current Affairs Programmes. Presently working as a Director News and Current Affairs at TARA, she has made significant contribution towards mainstreaming gender and focused on the issue of women and human rights.

In her journey she has been closely associated with Mahasweta Debi, Bibi Russell and Meera Shiva amongst others. It was with Mahasweta Devi that the documentary film The School that Karmi Soren Built that enabled the school in Jhargram to receive government recognition after 27 years of struggle. Ananya’s conviction towards her work attracted the famous textile designer Bibi Russell to work as a costume designer for her first feature film Dwitiya Paksha (2003) screened at the International Film Festival at Dhaka in 2004.

A Visiting lecturer at the Dept of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Calcutta she regularly writes articles, columns, short stories and poems in most of the leading journals in India and Argentina. And attended important seminars on issues related to Gender and Human Rights all over USA and South Asia.

Member NWMI (Network of Women in Media, India), she was the coordinator and founder member for the Bengal Chapter to campaign for women journalist’s rights. She was the only film-maker and journalist from Asia invited in a 15 member women’s delegation to the East West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii in a seminar entitled “Changing Faces of Women’s Leadership in Asia” in September 2002. In 2003, she was invited as member of an all India women’s peace delegation to Bangladesh where she documented the entire week long journey and produced 22 news capsules.

She has received a number of awards and felicitations significant among which are Special mention at Mumbai International Film Festival 1996 for her film Half Way Home; Achiever’s Award for Excellence in Television Journalism by the Ladies Circle, Kolkata in 2002 and Felicitation by Calcutta University, Dept of Women’s studies, and by the Rotary Club of Calcutta.