Balai Chand Mukhopadhyay (19 July 1899 – 9 February 1979) was an Indian Bengali-language novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet, and physician who wrote under the pen name of Banaphul (meaning "the wild flower" in Bengali).

His family originally hailed from Sehakhala situated in Hooghly District of present-day West Bengal.

He originally took the pen name Banaphul ("the wild flower") to hide his literary activities from a disapproving teacher.

He is most noted for his short vignettes, often just half-page long, but his body of work spanned sixty-five years and included "thousands of poems, 586 short stories (a handful of which have been translated to English),[4] 60 novels, 5 dramas, a number of one-act plays, an autobiography called Paschatpat (Background), and numerous essays.

"[5][6] On the 100th anniversary of his birth, the Government of India issued a postage stamp featuring his image.