List of people from West Bengal
This is a list of famous and notable people from West Bengal, India. This would include persons who are known to a large number of people and is not based on the extent of their popularity. Neither is the list viewed from the context of the present. Their fame could be brief, what matters is that they were well-known during the peak of their popularity. This list does not include the significant number of prominent East Bengali Refugees from East Bengal who settled in West Bengal after the partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947, or those who were based in Calcutta prior to partition and chose not to return to their ancestral districts.
Arts
- Binode Bihari Mukherjee
- Nandalal Bose
- Ramkinkar Baij
- Jahar Dasgupta
- Jamini Roy
- Paresh Maity
- Paritosh Sen
- Hemen Ganguly
- Ganesh Pyne
- Abanindra Nath Tagore
- Bikash Bhattacharya
Architecture
Literature
- Rabindranath Tagore (Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913)
- Kazi Nazrul Islam
- Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
- Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay
- Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay
- Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay
- Tarashankar Bandopadhyay
- Manik Bandopadhyay
- Jibanananda Das
- Buddhadeva Bose
- Rajsekhar Bose or Parasuram
- Bimal Kar
- Shakti Chattopadhyay
- Sankha Ghosh
- Ashapoorna Devi
- Samaresh Majumdar
- Shankar
- Amitav Ghosh
- Amit Chaudhuri
- Upamanyu Chatterjee
- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Kiran Desai
- Romesh Chunder Dutt
- Syed Mustafa Siraj
- Kazi Abdul Wadud
- S Wajid Ali
- Shahadat Hossain
- Toru Dutt
- Moti Nandi
- Prabir Ghosh
- Narayan Sanyal
- Buddhadeb Guha
- Satyajit Ray
- Niharranjan Gupta
- Sandipan Chattopadhyay
- Subodh Ghosh
- Ramapada Chaudhuri
- Nirendranath Chakravarty
- Bonoful
- Santosh Kumar Ghosh
- Sanjeev Chattopadhyay
- Shibram Chakravarty
- Adrish Bardhan
- Premendra Mitra
- Sunil Gangopadhyay
- Krittibas Ojha
- Chandidas
- Fikirchand
- Kashiram Das
- Bharat Chandra
- Iswar Gupta
- Vidyapati
- Kamalakanta
- Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
- Ramprasad
- Sri Aurobindo
- Akkhoykumar Boral
- Sukumar Ray
- Annadashankar Roy
- Dilipkumar Roy
- Swami Vivekananda
- Dwijendralal Ray
- Jatindranath Sengupta
- Atulprasad Sen
- Kumud Ranjan Mullick
- Premendra Mitra
- Bishnu Dey
- Sudhindranath Datta
- Sukanta Bhattacharya
- Purnendu Patri
- Jatindramohan Bagchi
- Brajendra Nath Seal
- Arun Mitra
- Buddhadev Dasgupta
- Nirendranath Chakraborty
- Subhash Mukherjee
- Salil Choudhury
- Alokranjan Dasgupta
- Sunil Ganguly
- Dipak Majumdar
- Shakti Chattopadhyay
- Utpal Kumar Basu
- Binoy Majumdar
- Arunesh Ghosh
- Manibhushan Bhattacharya
- Bhaskar Chakraborty
- Debarati Mitra
- Mridul Dasgupta
- Tushar Roy
- Falguni Ray
- Tushar Choudhury
- Ranajit Das
- Krishna Basu
- Shyamalkanti Das
- Joy Goswami
- Rudrasankar
- Subodh Sarkar
- Masuduzzaman
- Sujit Sarkar
- Bitashoke Bhattacharya
- Gautam Basu
- Mallika Sengupta
- Jahar Sen Mazumdar
- Sanjukta Bandopadhyay
- Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay
- Rahul Purakayastha
- Sanjam Pal
- Chaitali Chattopadhyay
- Joydeb Basu
- Samyabrata Joardar
- Mandakranta Sen
- Srijato
- Aveek Bandyopadhyay
- Aniket Patra
- Dipankar Bagchi
- Sarbajit Sarkar
- Sudip Basu
- Binayak Bandyopadhyaya
- Susnato Chowdhury
- Sibasis Mukhopadhyaya
- Rana Roychwodhury
- Pinaki Thakur
- Sumana Shyanal
- Suman Sen Sarma
- Kritisindhu Pal
- Madan Mohan Tarkalankar
- Jyotirindranath Tagore
- Arundhuti Ray
- Jhumpa Lahiri
- Shobha De
Journalism
- Harish Chandra Mukherjee
- Sevabrata Gupta (Film Critic)
- Dwarkanath Vidyabhusan
- Meghdeep Bhattacharyya
- Sumana Sarkar Saini
- Jay Mandal (photojournalist)
- Suman Bhattacharyya
- Subhadip Maitra
- Susnato Chowdhury
- Prabal Bhadra
- Sumon Chattopadhyay
- Rupok Saha
- Amiyo Tarafdar
Linguistics
Education
- Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay(Vidyasagar Mahasaya)
- Ashutosh Mukherjee
- Mahamahopadhyay Pandit Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna Bhattacharyya, C.I.E.
Philosophy
Movies
Directors
- Aparna Sen
- Anil Biswas
- Anurag Basu
- Bijoy Bose
- Budhdhadeb Dasgupta
- Basu Chatterjee
- Basu Bhattacharya
- Bimal Roy
- Gautam Ghose
- Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Dadasaheb Phalke Award, 2000
- Satyajit Ray, (OSCAR for Lifetime Achievement in 1992)
Actors
- Mithun Chakraborty
- Biswajit
- Joy Mukherjee
- Pradeep Kumar
- Ashok Kumar
- Kishore Kumar
- Anup Kumar Ganguly
- Prasenjit
- Rahul Bose
- Rahul Roy
- Rohan Dey
- Soumitra Chatterjee
- Uttam Kumar
- Victor Banerjee
- Ranjit Mullick
- Gyanesh Mukherjee
- Ajitesh Banerjee
- Asit Bandopadhyay
- Kali Banerjee
- Rabi Ghosh
- Chinmoy Roy
- Bhanu Banerjee
- Jahar Roy
- Jahar Gangully
- Dhritiman Chatterjee
- Tapas Pal
- Chiranjit
- Shantu Mukherjee
- Arun Mukherjee
Actresses
(Alphabetical) Also see List of Bengali actresses
- Aparna Sen
- Arpita Paul
- Arundhati Devi
- Bipasha Basu
- Debasree Roy
- Devika Rani, first winner of Dadasaheb Phalke Award, 1970
- Indrani Haldar
- Jaya Bachchan (nee Bhaduri)
- June Malia
- Kajol Devgan (nee Mukherjee)
- Kananbala
- Kanan Devi Dadasaheb Phalke Award, 1977
- Kheyali Dastidar
- Lili Chakroborty
- Madhavi Mukherjee
- Mamata Shankar
- Moon Moon Sen
- Mohua Roy Choudhury
- Moushmi Chatterji
- Nandini Malia
- Raakhee Gulzar
- Rachna Banerjee
- Raima Sen
- Rani Mukherjee
- Rimi Sen
- Rina Choudhury
- Rituparna Sengupta
- Riya Sen
- Ruma Guha Thakurta
- Sabitri Chatterjee
- Shandhya Roy
- Sharmila Tagore
- Subrata Chatterjee
- Suchitra Sen Dadasaheb Phalke Award, 2006
- Sulochana Chatterjee recipient of Dadasaheb Phalke Award 1973
- Sumita Sanyal
- Supriya Devi
- Sushmita Sen
- Tanushree Dutta
Music
Composers
- Trailokyanath Sanyal
- Hemant Kumar
- Sachin Dev Burman
- Manna dey
- Rahul Dev Burman
- Shyamal Mitra
- Kabir Suman
- Anjan Dutta
- Nachiketa
- Pritam
- Shantanu Moitra
Music (Vocal)
- Abhijeet,full name Abhijeet Bhattacharya
- Ajoy Chakrabarty
- Amit Kumar
- Arati Mukherjee
- Bappi Lahiri
- Babul Supriyo
- Budhaditya Mukherjee
- Debabrata Biswas
- Hemant Kumar , full name Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhayay
- JnanPrakash Ghosh
- Kanan Devi
- Kanika Bandyopadhyay
- Kishore Kumar
- Kumar Sanu
- Manabendra Mukherjee
- Manna Dey
- Nachiketa
- Pankaj Kumar Mullick
- Ruma Guha Thakurta
- Salil Chowdhury
- Sandhya Mujherjee
- Shaan,full name Shantanu Mukherjee
- Santideb Ghosh
- Shyamal Mitra
- Shreya Ghoshal
- Sangeeta Bandyopadyay
- Suchitra Mitra
- Antara Chowdhury
- Sromona Guha Thakurta
- Srikanta Acharya
- Anjan Dutta
- Chandrabindoo, Bengali Pop Band
Music (Instrumental & Classical)
- Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee-sitar maestro
- Ravi Shankar
- [[Pandit Kumar Bose (Tabla-Benaras gharana)]
- Sankha Chatterjee (Tabla)
- Nikhil Banerjee
- Biswajit Roy Chowdhury Sarod
- Anindo Chatterjee
- Anjan Chattopadhyay
- Bikram Ghosh
- Tanmay Bose
- Parveen Sultana
- Pandit Ajay Chakravarty
- Anup Kumar Biswas
- Sanjoy Bandopadhyay
Dance
Theatre
- Girish Ghosh
- Shishir Bhaduri
- Shambhu Mitra
- Ajitesh Bandopadhyay
- Rudra Prasad Sen Gupta
- Dinabandhu Mitra
- Rabindranath Tagore
- Sisir Bhaduri
- Girish Ghosh
- Ajitesh Bandyopadyay
- Asit Bandopadhyay
- Asit Banerjee
- Badal Sarkar
- Arun Mukhopadhyay
- Bibhas Chakrabarty
- Sohag Sen
- Jochhan Dastidar
- Bratya Basu
- Suman Mukherjee
- Goutam Halder
- Swatilekha Sengupta
- Chandra Dastidar
- Usha Ganguly
- Joyraj Bhattacharya
- Azad Abul Kalam
Politics
Freedom Fighters
- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose
- Khudiram Bose
- Ajoy Ghosh
- Keshab Chakravarty
- Aurobindo Ghosh
- Rajendra Lahiri
- Rash Behari Bose
- Batukeshwar Dutta
- Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das
- Rani Rashmoni
- Rash Behari Bose
- Bagha Jatin
- Sarojini Naidu
- Syama Prasad Mookerjee
- Basanta Kumar Biswas
- Ambika Chakrobarty
- Sri Aurobindo
- Barindra Kumar Ghosh
- Bipin Behari Ganguli
- Bina Das
- Jatindra Nath Das
- Jogesh Chandra Chattopadhyay
- Manabendra Nath Roy
- Narendra Mohan Sen
- B. C. Roy
- Triguna Sen
- Matangini Hazra
- Rajnarayan Basu
- Birendranath Sasmal
- Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
- Jnananjan Niyogi
- Ramkinkar Chattopadhyay
- Subodh Chandra Mullick
- Samar Guha
- Rajendranath Lahiri
Post independence figures
- Ashok Mitra
- Ajit Kumar Panja
- Bidhan Chandra Roy
- Atulya Ghosh
- Abdul Halim
- Tapan Sikdar
- Mamata Banerjee
- Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
- A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury
- Saugata Roy
- Kamal Guha
- Tathagata Roy
- Abha Maiti
- Pratap Chandra Chunder
- Pranab Mukherjee
- Jyoti Basu
- Somnath Chattopadhay
Others
Science
- Satyendra Nath Bose
- Upendranath Brahmachari
- P.C. Mahalanobis
- Dr. Gyan Chandra Ghosh
- Ashoke Sen
- Debabrata Goswami
- Manilal Bhaumik
- Subhash Mukhopadhyay,
- Sisir Kumar Mitra
- Ashesh Prosad Mitra
- Ashima Chatterjee
- Arun K. Ghosh Darunavir
- Tarak Mohan Das
- Nilanjana Maulik
Bhairab C. Bhattacharya
- Amartya Sen Nobel Laureate , economist, Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel]], 1998
- Dr. Sujit Kumar Bhattacharya
Zoology
Religion
Social reformers
- Raja Ram Mohan Roy, a great social reformist who has a great contribution towards the upliftment of women
- Maharshi Debendranath Tagore
- Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (A social and cultural reformist who is called the father of Bengali language)
- Keshub Chunder Sen
- Sivanath Sastri
- Protap Chunder Mozoomdar
- Nibaran Chandra Mukherjee
- Umesh Chandra Dutta
- Ram Chandra Vidyabagish
Derozians
- Ramtanu Lahiri
- Radhanath Sikdar
- Sib Chandra Deb
- Peary Chand Mitra
- Rasik Krishna Mallick
- Krishna Mohan Banerjee
- Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee
- Ramgopal Ghosh
Sports
- Gostho Pal, Footballer
- Mihir Sen, swimmer. First Indian to swim across the English Channel in 1958.
- Arati Saha, swimmer. First Asian woman to swim English Channel in 1959.
- Bula Chowdhury, swimmer. First Indian woman to swim English Channel twice.
- Dibyendu Barua, chess grandmaster
- Surya Sekhar Ganguly, chess grandmaster*
- Saurav Ganguly, cricketer
- Pankaj Roy,cricketer
- Arun Lal,cricketer
- Saba Karim,cricketer
- Sailen Manna , footballer
- P.K.Banerjee, footballer
- Subrata Bhattacharya, footballer
- Krishanu Dey, footballer
- Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, athletics. Double gold-medallist at Bangkok Asiad, 1996
- Leander Paes, lawn tennis player. Former doubles world no. one with Mahesh Bhupathi and bronze-medallist at Atlanta Olympics, 1996
- Soumyadeep Roy, Table Tennis. Commonwealth games gold medalist
- Subhajit Saha, Table Tennis. Commonwealth games gold medalist
- Mohammad Ali Qamar, Boxing . Commonwealth games gold medalist
- Arjun Atwal, golfer.
- Rohan Gavaskar,cricketer
Old Calcutta/ Bengal legends
- Raja Nabakrishna Deb of Shovabazar
- Gouri Sen of lagey taka debey Gouri Sen fame
- Hari Ghosh of Hari Ghosher goal fame
- Banamali Sarkar
- Gobindram Mitter
- Prasanna Coomar Tagore
- Ramanath Tagore
Industrialists/ Businessmen/ Industry personalities
- Sir Rajen Mookerjee
- Sir Biren Mookerjee
- Rajat Kumar Gupta
- Purnendu Chatterjee
- L.N.Mittal
- Prashant Mukherjee
Others
- Mother Teresa , Nobel Lauriet
- P C Sorcar, Magician
- Bimal Kanti Dey, Globe Trotter, Cyclist
- Ashis Nandy, Author, political psychologist
- Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee
- Dilip Kumar Gupta, a pioneer of Indian Advertising, who also modernized and professionalized publishing in Bengal,and helped many talented Bengali writers, poets, filmakers and artists achieve their aspirations. First publisher of Jawarharlal Nehru's Discovery of India. A cultural icon and role model of his times.
- Rani Rashmoni, very wealthy zamindar, champion of the people and founder of Dakkhineswar.