Raghunath Goswami

Raghunath Goswami
Raghunath Goswami
Born	13 January 1931; Calcutta
Notable work	Tea is 100% Swadeshi ; Tea Fights Fatigue ; Lord Gouranga Travels
Movement	Commercial art, graphic design and modern Indian advertising
Spouse	Uma Goswami
Children	Mangal Goswami
Parent(s)	Upendranath Goswami (Father); Ranibala Devi (Mother)

Raghunath Goswami (

Bengali: রঘুনাথ গোস্বামী) (13 January 1931 – 19 January 1995)^[1] was a distinguished artist, noted Indian Bengali book and graphic designer. However, this is not his only identity. He was multi-talented. Raghunath made India's first puppet film, which won the Prime Minister of India's Gold Medal Award for Best Children's Film. Goswami also painted the covers of many books.^[2]

Early life

Goswami was born on January 13, 1931 in

South Kolkata. After a few days, he moved to Rani Harshamukhi Road of Paikpara at North Kolkata. After coming here he got admission in I.A class in the Maharaja Manindra Chandra College

, but left the college due to financial reasons and focused on book decoration. He was drawn to art and culture through contact with Shailendranath Gangopadhyay, uncle of a friend.

Career

Goswami started his career as a book

Interior Design, Exhibition Design, Architectural Design, Product Design, Communication, Animation, Teaching Aids etc., he has effortlessly walked in all aspects of design. In 1952, he founded an organization called The Puppets Calcutta (or Puppets) along with Hena Dasgupta, Dilip Bhowmik and Shantiranjan Pal at Rani Harshmukhi Road in Paikpara, North Kolkata. This organization started the practice of non-traditional puppetry in this country. The Puppets had their office at 6 Hastings Street (now Kiran Shankar Roy Road), Calcutta-1. In 1960, he made a color puppet film called Hattagol Vijay in this way. It is India's first puppet film. The story is also written by Goswami himself. It won the Prime Minister's Gold Medal as the best children's film in 1961.^[3]

In Anandabazar Patrika, Angshuman Bandopadhyay wrote under the title 'Those who brought Bengaliana in advertising',

From
Calcutta
emerged in their work. (in Bengali)

Goswami had designed cover of many books. It must be remembered that without any education one learns commercial art only by sight. During his college days, he used to draw book covers and work on book illustrations. He also designed the cover of

Bibhutibhushan Banerjee

's novel Ichamati, Kushal Pahari published by Mitra & Ghosh Publishers.