Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray Biography

Satyajit Ray was an Indian film maker from Bengal. He played a great part in the 20^th century cinema. He had directed 37 films. Also he was a writer, publisher, film critic and graphic designer. He got 11 international prizes for his first film Pather Panchali in 1955 that included Best Human Documentary Award at the Cannes film festival.

He was born on 2^nd May 1921 in Calcutta in West Bengal. His grandfather Upendrakishore Ray was a writer, philosopher and leader of the Brahmo Samaj. His father Sukumar Ray was also a writer and a critic. His mother was Suprabha Ray. He lost his father when he was three years old and lived with his mother. He studied at Ballygunge Government High School in Calcutta and did his BA in economics at Presidency College at University of Calcutta. He then studied at the Visva Bharati University at Santiniketan founded by Rabindranath Tagore.

The fist documentary film that he produced was The Inner Eye. He visited Ajanta, Ellora and Elephanta caves to admire the Indian arts. In 1949 he married his cousin Bijoya Das and has one son Sandip who is a film director at present. Satyajit Ray started to work as a junior visualize in an advertising agency in 1943. He also worked for Signet Press, the publishing house of D. K. Gupta.

He founded Calcutta Film Society in 1947 and screened many films. French director Jean Renoir encouraged him to shoot his own films. He was sent to London to work at the headquarters of D. J. Keymer and in the three months time, he watched 99 films which made up his decision to become a filmmaker.

After his first successful film Pather Panchali, he director the films Aparajito in 1956 and Apur Sansar in 1959 and these three films form The Apu Trilogy. He had received many major awards in his career which include 32 National Film Awards and many more international awards at film festivals and an Academy Honorary Award in 1991.

He thought that script writing is an important part of film direction. For this reason, he did not prefer filming in other languages. When he had to work in non-Bengali films, he wrote the script in English and made it translated under his supervision. His film Charulata was his personal favorite. He died on 23^rd April 1992. 

Published: N/A

Updated: October 01, 2017