I was passionate about films even as a child and recall attending a silent film festival in Calcutta when I was in Class III. Over the years, my interest was rekindled after watching The Sound of Music and Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne. I graduated to reading books on cinema like The Liveliest Art by Arthur Knight and When The Shooting Stops...The Cutting Begins by Ralph Rosenblum and Robert Karen. By the time I finished school, I’d made up my mind to make a career in films.

The first turning point of my life was joining the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune. I enrolled for a three-year undergraduate diploma course in cinema, specialising in editing. During the course, I was guided by prolific editors from the Indian film industry like Subhash Gupta, Renu Saluja and Subhash Saigal. I also assisted director Ketan Mehta in his film Holi (1984). The course also helped me bag big projects.

In the last two decades I’ve worked with directors including Rituparno Ghosh in films like Chokher Bali, The Last Lear, Aparna Sen in Paromitar Ekdin and Anjan Dutt in Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbo Na, Byomkesh Bakshi and so on. I also have several television serials and commercials to my credit.

Winning the 57th National Film Award in the Best Editing category for Ghosh’s Abohomaan in 2010 was another turning point. It made people take greater notice of my work.

Currently, I am busy editing a number of Bengali films. There’s Suman Mukhopadhyay’s Shesher Kobita, Sandipan Roy’s Ekla Akash and Ghosh’s documentary on Rabindranath Tagore. Two other films that I have edited — Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s Aparajita Tumi and Dutt’s Abar Byomkesh — are almost ready for release.

(As told to Yashodeep Sengupta)