In 1897, films were shown for the first time in Calcutta. The journey of Bangla movie begun even before the first Bengali talkie, Dena Paona was released in 1931 by New Theatre. Bengal got the first popular hero in the film with Pramathesh Barua, who was a director himself too. Debaki Bose, Pramathesh Barua gave a new dimension to Indian cinema. In 1935, P.C.Barua directed and acted in Saratchandra Chatterjee's popular novel Devdas and this film became a phenomenon in the industry. There was never any shortage of stories in Bangla fims nor any dearth of actors/ actresses or directors. The real stardom in Bengali films started when films starring Uttamkumar and Suchitra Sen gained extreme popularity. This romantic combination brought golden age of commercial Bengali cinema. Along this it will be incomplete if we don’t mention the biggest event of Indian cinema was the release of Pather Panchali in 1955 made by Satyajit Ray. Apart from Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak made internationally acclaimed movies followed by a group consisting of Budhhadeb Dasgupta, Gautam Ghosh, Utpalendu Chakrabarti, Aparna Sen, Rituparno Ghosh etc. Bengali cinema was enriched by the presence of actresses like, Arundhuti Devi, Supriya Choudhury, Sabitri Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Sharmila Thakur, Aparna Sen and Debasree Roy. And in the recent years - Rituparna Sengupta, Indrani Halder. Saumitra Chatterji, Ranjit Mallick, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Tapas Pal, Chiranjit Chakrabarty - are few of the contemporary actors who act in leading roles in Bengali films The present scenario of tear and laughter will be aptly presented in Bangamela 2008.