Biography

Apurba Kishore Bir (born 1948), also known as A. K. Bir, is an Indian film cinematographer, screenwriter and director. An alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, he worked in various Ad-films and documentaries before making his feature-film debut. He won the National Film Award for Best Cinematography for 27 Down, his debut film. His directional debut Aadi Mimansa won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration. Bir's other directional ventures Lavanya Preeti and Baaja were bestowed with the National Film Award for Best Children's Film. As of 2014, he has won nine National Film Awards—including three for Best Cinematography—and is one of the directors of National Film Development Corporation of India. Born in Balikuti village of Odisha, Bir had a great passion for painting. At the insistence of his father, he joined the Film and Television Institute of India with a specialisation in motion-picture cinematography. After passing out of the institute, he worked on short films and documentaries. 27 Down, his debut feature-film as a cinematographer, won him the Best Cinematographer award at the 21st National Film Awards. Nearly 70 percent of the film was shot using a handheld camera. Bir was one of the first-unit cameramen for Richard Attenborough's Gandhi. He won two more awards for "Best Cinematography" for Daasi (1988) and Aadi Mimansa (1991). The latter also marked his directional debut. It won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration. As a director Known for his work in Parallel Cinema. Bir's films focused on children as two of his films—Lavanya Preeti and Baaja won the National Film Award for Best Children's Film in 1993 and 2002 respectively. The former received the "Best Asian Film" award at the Osaka International Film Festival in addition to an "International Jury's Critic Award" and a screening at the Berlin International Film Festival. Hamari Beti, for which he wrote the screenplay apart from photography and direction, was screened at the competitive section of the "World Film Section" of Chicago International Film Festival in 2006. In 2012, Bir was appointed as one of the directors of the National Film Development Corporation of India. He headed the "Technical Sub-committee" and was the chairman of the feature film jury of the 45th International Film Festival of India in 2014.