Utpal, who retired from the All India Radio, has spent his life writing several books about Assamese films. As a dean in a university he works to promote performing arts.

Utpal Datta is an Assamese film critic and author. He is currently the Dean of the Department of Performing Arts at Assam DownTown University. Prior to this, he spent twenty-eight years working at the All India Radio.

Utpal’s first passion is writing, and he has written many books on film studies in Assamese. His books are being used as reference books on the university’s syllabus.

Utpal was born in a small village near Guwahati. He enjoyed his childhood in a nearby town named Nalbari. He did his schooling at the government school in that town itself. He completed his graduation in arts from Nalbari College. Then he moved to Guwahati for his post-graduation in English literature from Cotton University. He has been writing about Indian cinema and films since his college days. Because of his writing talent, a famous film magazine called "Bismoi" invited him to work as a sub-editor during his college days. He worked for the two famous magazines ‘Roopkar’ and ‘Ranghar’ for ten years. Then he joined All India Radio as a programme executive, from where he retired as head of the station.

Remembering his childhood, Utpal says during his student days, he used to spend most of his time either reading books in the library or watching movies in local theatres. Because he didn’t have that much money, he used to watch movies and listen to their songs while standing behind cinema halls.

When asked about his role models, Utpal says, he likes to learn from everyone. He is more inclined to watch movies and considers them his inspiration. The movies that inspire him are Vijay Anand’s ‘Johnny Mera Naam’ and Satyajit Ray’s ‘Pratidwandi’.

Utpal advises those who aspire to become performing artists that they should excel at speaking about and presenting their work live.

Utpal’s life mantra is ‘Be simple and be happy.’ Another mantra he follows in his professional life is, ‘If you could do good to anyone, go ahead, but never ever harm anyone.’