Satyajit Ray

Biographies reveal bare details about the maverick filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Even today not much is known about this extraordinary filmmaker. But people still have a passion for doing research upon his classic films as he is an extraordinary filmmaker. Satyajit Ray was India’s first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Academy Award (Honorary Oscar) in 1992. He is also a recipient of the honorary doctorate by Oxford University ( after actor Chaplin). The government of India has awarded him ‘Padma Bhushan(1965) and  Dadasaheb Phalke Award(1985) and the highest civilian honour’Bharat Ratna’(1992) too. In 1992, he was even posthumously awarded the Akira Kurosawa Award for Lifetime Achievement in directing at the San Francisco International Film Festival. The director was chosen once as No 7 in the list of list of "Top 10 Directors" of the world. 

Satyajit Ray was born in Calcutta on 2 May 1921.  He completed his degree at Presidency College, Calcutta. After his graduation, he joined a British-run advertising agency (D.J.Keymer) as a junior Visualiser drawing eighty rupees per month. During 1947, he set up the ‘Calcutta Film Society’ with his colleagues that screened many foreign films. In 1950, he landed up in London where he watched 99 films. Ray had even once said that seeing some neorealist films had an impact, and he decided to become a filmmaker. Thus, he shot his film ‘Pather Panchali’ in late 1952. He shot this film with his personal savings and borrowed some funds, but that was not sufficient either. It took three years to complete the film. West Bengal Government funded the film and his first film ‘Pather Panchali’ released in 1955. The film won him international acclaim. The film was the adaptation from a novel written by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay was a novelist, lyric >> Read More... . This film ‘Pather Panchali’ even today is featured in lists of the greatest films ever made. This film established Ray as one of the country’s most distinguished filmmaker, and the film won in 1956 an award (Best Human Document award)  in the Cannes Film Festival. Later, Ray went to make a total of 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and short films. He had won 32 National Film Awards The National Film Awards gets presented every year >> Read More... so far.  

Ray has introduced Aparna Sen A vetern filmmaker and actress, Aparna Sen has bee >> Read More... , Jaya Bhaduri, Sharmila Tagore Sharmila Tagore is a Bengali actress, who later sh >> Read More... , Soumitra Chatterjee Soumitra Chatterjee was born on January 19, 1935, >> Read More... to  Indian cinema and even worked with Waheeda Rehman She took birth in a Tamil Urdu speaking Muslim fam >> Read More... , Simi Garewal Simi Garewal, popularly known as "The Lady in Whit >> Read More... , Amjad Khan Amjad Zakaria Khan was born on 12th November, 1940 >> Read More... , Shabana Azmi Shabana Azmi is a film actress of Indian origin an >> Read More... and Sanjeev Kumar Sanjeev Kumar was born on July 9th, 1938 in Mumbai >> Read More... . Satyajit Ray was in charge of scripting, casting, musical scoring, and editing, and designed his own credit titles and publicity material. In the International film world, Ray is well known for ‘Apu Trilogy’ which comprised three Bengali films ‘’Pather Panchali’’, ‘’Aparajito’’ and ‘’Apur Sansar’’ directed by Ray. He later made one of his classic films ‘ Charulata Story Soon >> Read More... ’ based on Rabindranath Tagore’s novel. Although Ray considers ‘Charulata’ as his favourite film that he ever made, critics consider another film ‘ Devi Click to look into! >> Read More... ’ as his best. The film ‘Charulata’ fetched Ray the Silver Bear Award for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival. He received the same award for his earlier film ‘ Mahanagar Mahanagar is one of the Hindi serials that appeale >> Read More... ’ too. Though Ray never looked for dolled-up glamour for his films he personified the actresses’ beauty as intelligent beauty in many films and chose Waheeda Rehman, Sharmila Tagore, Aparna Sen, Simi Garewal, Madhavi Mukherjee in his films. 

Satyajit Ray, who is considered as a true poet of cinema, has directed a Bengali film ‘Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne’ (1969) which was based on a story of his grandfather Upendra Kishore. Although Ray directed matinee idol Uttam Kumar Uttam Kumar was matinee idol of Bengali cinema. He >> Read More... in his two films ‘ Nayak An interesting Marathi television series called "N >> Read More... ’ and ‘Chiriyakhana’, Ray could not succeed in directing Suchitra Sen Suchitra Sen was a renowned and respected Indian f >> Read More... . In 1958, the director made another classic film ‘Jalsaghar’ which made French people pay attention to Ray’s films. The film boasts of Chhabi Biswas’s superb performance and music by Ustand Vilayat Khan contributed to creating the right atmosphere in the film. Ray is also known for his films like ‘Kanchenjangha’(1962), ‘Ganashatru’ (1990), ‘Sonar Kella’ (1974), ‘Hirak Rajar Deshe’ (1980), ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ (1969),’ Ashani Sanket’ (1973) and ‘Agantuk’ (1991) etc. The director passed away on 3 April 1992 in Kolkata. He left behind his wife, Bijoya Ray Born in April 1917 and died in June 2015; this jou >> Read More... and son Sandip Ray Sandip Ray is the only son of Satyajit Ray and Bij >> Read More... . He was a towering personality and his encyclopedic knowledge, his charisma, and his vision of cinema always coincided with the hope of an emergent nation.