Veteran sound designer Anup Mukhopadhyay passed away on the morning of 22nd December in Calcutta following heart attack. He was 70 years old. He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.
He had won the National Award for best sound designing four times in his chequered career of designing sound for more than 500 films. He was part of Satyajit Ray’s unit. At the time of his demise, he was working on the sound of Nayan Rahasya (Bengali), being made by Satyajit Ray’s son, Sandeep Ray for whose many films and TV serials he designed sound. Anup firmly believed that sound should be felt as much as it should be heard. Although he was a sound designer, he often emphasised the importance of silence rather than sound in films.
An FTII alumnus, he was a former dean of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute. He worked with filmmakers like Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Aparna Sen, Goutam Ghose and Mrinal Sen. He won the National Award for his films Uttara, Enough Of Silence, Bhalo Theko and Iti Srikant. For those who assisted him, he was a living encyclopaedia on the subject of sound. He was among the few who crossed over from analogue to digital.
Anup Mukhopadhyay also worked for the National Film Development Corporation and the Calcutta Doordarshan. All those who worked with him considered him a genius, no less. His understanding of sound was so profound that even a filmmaker like Satyajit Ray felt relaxed if he was around. He would always say, “Raater belae jhijhi aar diner belae pakhir daak maney sound design noy (Sound design is not about having the chirping of birds to signify day and cricket to signify night).” Anup Mukhopadhyay was an enthusiast of world cinema and used to love watching films in all languages.