Sudhendu Roy

Sudhendu Roy Biography

Sudhendu Roy was a famous art director and production designer of Hindi cinema since 1954. He was a part of Bengali film industry in the late 1940s before he moved to Mumbai with Bimol Roy. He is best known for the association with Bollywood great directors Bimal Roy and Yash Chopra, who was able to handle both the realism of Roy and plushness of Chopra. He has also directed four Hindi movies of which two movies were India’s official entries to Academy awards - Uphaar (1971) and Saudagar (1973). His association with Bimal Roy has given landmark movies to Hindi cinema – Bandini, Madhumati and Sujata. His association with Yash Chopra has delivered beautiful shots on the screen for Lamhe, Chandini, Darr, Silsila etc. He was also associated with the best known works of subhash Ghai – Karma and Karz.

Roy was born in Pabna of present day Bangladesh. His father was a lawyer by profession and a freedom fighter too. Though he pursued his son to take law as his career, young Sudhendu ran away from home to fulfill him dreams in film industry. He started his career as a commercial artist and had to struggle for a long period to get an opportunity in film field. His association with legendary director Bimal Roy began with Anjangarh (1948) and lasted till Bimal Roy’s unexpected death during his career peak.  

He was one among those artists who moved to Mumbai from Kolkata with Bimal Roy, who offered him the first job as an art director. Biraj Bahu in 1954 marked his Bollywood debut, followed by a series of Bimal Roy movies. Uphaar (1971) marked his directorial debut, followed by Amitabh Bachchan – Nutan starrer Saudagar. Aap ki khatir and Jeena Mukh are his other directorial projects. Yahudi, Parakh, Aas ka panchi, Mere Mehboob, Safar, Pavitra Paapi, Don, Joshilay, Aap ki kasam, Kabuliwalah, Dastak, Heer Ranja, Aina, Anjaam and Mujhe jeene do are a few more acclaimed works of Roy. He was married to Krishna, sister of art director Ganesh Basak. His daughter Sharmishta Roy is also an art director of Bollywood since early 2000s.

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Updated: June 30, 2014