Editing Hemant Kumar (section)

==Production==
In the late 1950s, Hemanta ventured into movie production under his own banner: Hemanta-Bela Productions. The first movie under this banner was a Bengali film directed by [[Mrinal Sen]], titled [[Neel Akasher Neechey]] (1959). The story was based on the travails of a Chinese street hawker in
[[Calcutta]] in the backdrop of India's freedom struggle. The movie went on to win the [[President's Gold Medal]] — the highest honour for a movie from the Government of [[India]]. In the next decade, Hemanta's production company was renamed [[Geetanjali productions]] and it produced several Hindi movies such as [[Bees Saal Baad (1962 film)|Bees Saal Baad]], [[Kohra (1964 film)|Kohraa]], [[Biwi Aur Makaan]], [[Faraar (1965 film)|Faraar]], [[Rahgir]] and [[Khamoshi (1970 film)|Khamoshi]] all of which had music by Hemanta. Only [[Bees Saal Baad (1962 film)|Bees Saal Baad]] and [[Khamoshi (1970 film)|Khamoshi]] were major commercial successes.

Back in Bengal, Hemanta scored music for a movie titled [[Palatak]] in 1963 where he experimented with merging Bengal folk music and light music. This proved to be a major success and Hemanta's composition style changed noticeably for many of his future films in Bengal such as [[Baghini]], and [[Balika Badhu (1967 film)|Balika Badhu]]. In Bengali films [[Manihar]] and [[Adwitiya]], both of which were major musical as well as commercial successes, his compositions had a light classical tinge. In 1961, for commemorating [[Rabindranath Tagore]]'s birth centenary, [[the Gramophone Company of India]]
featured Rabindrasangeet by Hemanta in a large portion of its commemorative output. This too proved to be a major commercial success. Hemanta went on several overseas concert tours including his trip to the West Indies. Overall, in the 1960s decade, he retained his position as the major male singer in Bengal and as a composer and singer to be reckoned with in Hindi films.

In the 1960s he was the predominant and lead male voice in many of Tagore's musical dramas like [[Valmiki Pratibha]], [[Shyama (dance drama)|Shyama]], [[Sapmochan]], [[Rabindra Nritya Natya|Chitrangada]] and [[Chandalika]]. With [[Kanika Bandopadhyay]] (1924–2000) and [[Suchitra Mitra]] (1924–2010), who were the lead female voices in these, he was part of the Rabindra Sangeet triumvirate that was popular and respected. It was referred to as 'Hemanta-Kanika-Suchitra' and, with Debabrata Biswas, this quartet was and continues to be the most heard exponents of Tagore compositions. [[Asoktaru Bandopadhyay]], [[Chinmoy Chattopadhyay]], [[Sagar Sen]], [[Sumitra Sen]], and [[Ritu Guha]] were the other leading exponents of Rabindra Sangeet at that time.