G Narayan Sharma, born to Gurumayum Chandrajit Sharma and Gurumayum Dhani Devi, G. Narayan Sharma (1922 – 2007), began his career as a professional photographer. Easily drawn towards music, dance, and theatre, he was a dancer with the Little Ballet Troupe of Bombay for a stint of six years as well as he was a member of the ballet unit of Triveni Kala Sangam in Delhi for six years, travelling as a Indian cultural troupe to even foreign shores. His initiation in the film world began in Bombay when he came in contact with the heartthrob of Hindi cinema, Balraj Sahni. Through Sahni’s association he drove deep into the art of acting and cinematography and even worked as an assistant cameraperson for the film, ‘Lal Batti’ (1957). Since then he has already dreamt of a Manipuri Cinema. Although he is no more, the body of works left behind by this stalwart is a legacy of the Manipuri film heritage, according to Manipur State Film Development Society.
Gurumayum Narayan Sharma produced Manipur’s first 100 days’ box office run film, ‘Lamja Pashuram’(1974), Manipur’s first national film award winning film, ‘Saaphabee’ (1976) based on a popular folktale and ‘Olangthagee Wangmadasoo’ (1980), Manipur reigning longest box office run of 32 weeks. The prominent filmmaker then went on to produce as well as direct three more feature films in celluloid format, ’Kombeerei’ (1989), ‘Sanamanbi Sanarei’ (1995) and ‘Helloy’ (2002).
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