8th WBFJA Awards

The 8th West Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards (WBFJA) also known as Cinemar Somabarton (transl. Convocation of Cinema) is an annual award ceremony which honoured the best Bengali-language films of 2024.^[1]

2024-2025 WBFJA Awards
Awarded for	Excellence in Indian Bengali cinema
Announced on	Nominations: 3 January 2025 (2025-01-03)
Presented on	12 January 2025 (2025-01-12)
Date	12 January 2025
Site	Priya Cinema Hall, Kolkata
Organised by	West Bengal Film Journalists’ Association (WBFJA)
Official website	WBFJA
Highlights
Best Film	Manikbabur Megh
Best Direction	Debaloy Bhattacharya Srijit Mukherji
Best Actor	Chandan Sen
Best Actress	Rituparna Sengupta
← 7th WBFJA Awards

Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole led the ceremony with 14 nominations, followed by Khadaan with 13 and Ajogyo with 12 nominations respectively.^[2]

Dev received dual nominations under Best Actor and Most Popular Actor categories, for two different films – Tekka and Khadaan, winning the latter.^[3]

Background

The nominations for the ceremony were announced on 3 January 2025 at a Press conference held at Rotary Sadan, Kolkata and subsequently live streamed via Facebook from the official page of the organization. Actors Tota Roy Chowdhury and Rituparna Sengupta were present at the conference. The ceremony was to take place at the Ajanta Circus in order to commemorate the 100th Birth Anniversary of noted Indian actor Raj Kapoor. However, owing to security concerns, the venue was later changed to Priya Cinema.^[4]

Winners & Nominees

Main Awards

The nominations were announced on 3 January 2025.^[2]

Best Film	Best Director
Manikbabur Megh – Little Lamb Films Beline – DrishtiShree Arts Pvt. Limited Chaalchitra Ekhon – Hoichoi Studios Padatik – Friends Communication Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole – Hoichoi Studios	Debaloy Bhattacharya – Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole Srijit Mukherji – Padatik Anjan Dutt – Chaalchitra Ekhon Pratim D Gupta – Chaalchitro: The Frame Fatale
Best Actor	Best Actress
Chandan Sen – Manikbabur Megh as Manik Babu Abir Chatterjee – Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole as Dipak Chatterjee Anjan Dutt – Chaalchitra Ekhon as Kunal Sen Dev – Tekka as Iqlakh Alam Tota Roy Chowdhury – Chaalchitro: The Frame Fatale as Kanishka Chatterjee	Rituparna Sengupta – Ajogyo as Parna Majumdar Koushani Mukherjee – Bohurupi as Jhimli Pramanik Mamata Shankar – Bijoyar Pore as Alokananda "Aloka" Mimi Chakraborty – Alaap as Aditi Mitra Rukmini Maitra – Boomerang as Ishaa Sen/Nisha
Best Supporting Actor	Best Supporting Actress
Silajit Majumdar – Ajogyo as Raktim Majumdar Anirban Chakrabarty – Chaalchitro: The Frame Fatale as Naseer Indraneil Sengupta – Hubba as Dibakar Sen Paran Bandopadhyay – Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole as Swapan Kumar Ritwick Chakraborty – Shontaan as Indranil "Bablu" Bose	Swastika Dutta – Alaap as Swatilekha Sen Sanjita Mukherjee – Doaansh as Sarathi Sardar
Best Actor in a Negative Role	Best Actor in a Comic Role
Anirban Bhattacharya – Athhoi as Anagra "Gogo" Chatterjee Dibyendu Bhattacharya – Bonbibi as Dakshin Ray Jisshu Sengupta – Khadaan as Mohan Das Loknath Dey – Hubba as Baapi Soumya Mukherjee – Pariah: Volume – I as Nanda	Saswata Chatterjee – Jamalaye Jibonto Bhanu as Bhanu Bandopadhyay Sourav Das – Boomerang as Ayan
Best Music Director	Best Lyricist
Amit Chatterjee – Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole Amit Chatterjee – Athhoi Anupam Roy, Indraadip Dasgupta & Ranajoy Bhattacharjee – Ajogyo Anupam Roy, Bonnie Chakraborty, Arnab Dutta & Nani Chora Das Baul – Bohurupi Nilayan Chatterjee, Rathijit Bhattacharya & Savvy Gupta – Khadaan	Kaushik Ganguly – "Keu Jaanbe Naa" – Ajogyo Anupam Roy – "Ajogyo Ami" – Ajogyo Barish – "Taasher Deshe" – Tekka Dhrubojyoti Chakraborty – "Mon Kharaper Gaan" – Oti Uttam Ranajoy Bhattacharjee – "Tomay Chhere Jete" – Tekka
Best Male Playback Singer	Best Female Playback Singer
Rathijit Bhattacharya – "Kishori" – Khadaan Timir Biswas – "Taasher Deshe" – Tekka Anupam Roy – "Ajogyo Ami" – Ajogyo Arijit Singh – "Keu Jaanbe Naa" – Ajogyo Rupankar Bagchi – "Mon Kharaper Gaan" – Oti Uttam	Antara Mitra – "Kishori" – Khadaan Monali Thakur – "Saaiyaan Beimaan" – Oti Uttam Shreya Ghoshal – "Tui Aamar Hobi Naa" – Ajogyo Shreya Ghoshal – "Elomelo Raat" – Babli Sohini Saha – "Phiraiya Dao" – Khadaan

Popular Awards

Most Popular Film	Most Popular Actor
Khadaan – Surinder Films & Dev Entertainment Ventures Ajogyo – Surinder Films Alaap – Surinder Films Bohurupi – Windows Production Boomerang – Jeetz Filmworks & Grassroot Entertainment Eta Amader Golpo – Dhagaa Production	Dev – Khadaan as Shyam Mahato / Madhu Mahato Ankush Hazra – Mirza: Part 1 – Joker as Mirza Jeet – Boomerang as Samar Sen / Amar Prosenjit Chatterjee – Ajogyo as Prosen Mitra Vikram Chatterjee – Pariah: Volume – I as Lubdhak Chatterjee

Special Awards

Lifetime Achievement Award
Aparna Sen

Other awards

Most Promising Director
Abhinandan Banerjee – Manikbabur Megh Arna Mukhopadhyay – Athhoi Rajdeep Paul & Sarmistha Maiti – Mon Potongo Samik Roy Choudhury – Beline Soojit Dutta – Khadaan
Most Promising Actor (Male)
Sawon Chakraborty – Chaalchitra Ekhon Gambhira Bhattacharya – Hubba Pratik Dutta – Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole Subhankar Mohanta – Mon Potongo
Most Promising Actor (Female)
Baishakhi Roy – Mon Potongo Oindrila Sen – Mirza: Part 1 – Joker Roshni Bhattacharyya – Oti Uttam Sreya Bhattacharya – Beline Tanika Basu – Chaalchitro: The Frame Fatale

Technical Awards

Best Screenplay	Best Editing	Best Art Director	Best Cinematography
Anjan Dutt – Chaalchitra Ekhon	Antara Lahiri – Chaalchitro: The Frame Fatale Srijit Mukherji – Padatik	Tanmoy Chakraborty – Padatik	Anup Singh – Manikbabur Megh
Best Sound Designer	Best Background Score	Best Costume Designer	Best Makeup
Abhijit Teny Roy – Manikbabur Megh	Rathijit Bhattacharya – Khadaan Amit Chatterjee – Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole Prabuddha Banerjee – Alaap Subhadeep Guha – Athhoi Subhajeet Mukherjee – Manikbabur Megh	Sabarni Das – Padatik	Somnath Kundu – Padatik

Controversy

Windows Production, owned by Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy, requested the organisation to revoke the nominations for their film Bohurupi (2024), conveying their wish to abstain from attending the ceremony or accepting any awards.^[5][6]

Superlatives

Multiple nominations

Nominations	Film
14	Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole
13	Khadaan
12	Ajogyo
8	Chaalchitro: The Frame Fatale
7	Manikbabur Megh, Padatik
6	Athhoi, Chaalchitra Ekhon