SHANKAR LALL GOENKA: A TRUE VISIONARY

PROFILING WELL-KNOWN PHILANTHROPIST AND ENTREPRENEUR SHANKAR LALL GOENKA FROM ASSAM WHO HAS BEEN INSTRUMENTAL IN BRINGING FILMFARE AWARDS ASSAMESE 2024 TO THE STATE

Shankar Lall Goenka, born in Shillong on December 3, 1935, graduated from St Edmund's College before joining the family's film exhibition business in 1957. His father, Jeewan Ram Goenka, founded the first fully equipped cinema hall in the North-East, Kelvin Cinema, in 1926 in Shillong, followed by Bijou Cinema in 1932 and Kelvin Cinema in Guwahati in 1935. Jeewan Ram Goenka was honoured with the title of Rai Bahadur by the British Government for donating Rs. 50,000 for the first maternity hospital in the North East in 1932, which was named Ganesh Das Hospital. Shankar Lall Goenka established the first 70mm cinema in the North East, Anjalee Cinema, in 1966.

In 1977, he formed Goenka Enterprise and released several Assamese films. He established the Jeewan Ram Mungi Devi Goenka Memorial Public Charitable Trust in 2000, which presents the Lifetime Achievement Award for Cultural Excellence and organises the JRMD Memorial Lecture annually. The Trust published biographies and produced an album paying tribute to Dr. Bhupen Hazarika.