Satyajit Ray

1921 - 1992

Satyajit Ray (2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time,[2] Ray is celebrated for works including but not limited to The Apu Trilogy(1955–1959), The Music Room (1958), The Big City (1963) and Charulata (1964).

Ray was born in Calcutta to renowned writer Sukumar Ray, who was prominent in the field of arts and literature. Starting his career as a commercial artist, he was drawn into independent film-making after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing Vittorio De Sica's Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves (1948) during a visit to London.

Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. He also authored several short stories and novels, primarily for young children and teenagers. Popular characters created by Ray include Feluda the sleuth, Professor Shonku the scientist, Tarini Khuro the storyteller, and Lalmohan Ganguly the novelist. He is also known for his horror stories.

Ray's first film, Pather Panchali (1955) - based off of the 1929 novel by Bibhutibhushan Banerjee - won eleven international prizes, including the inaugural Best Human Document award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. This film, along with Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) (1959), form The Apu Trilogy. Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing, and designed his own credit titles and publicity material.

Ray received many major awards in his career, including 36 Indian National Film Awards, a Golden Lion, a Golden Bear, 2 Silver Bears, many additional awards at international film festivals and ceremonies, and an Academy Honorary Award in 1992. In 1978, he was awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University. The Government of India honoured him with the Bharat Ratna, its highest civilian award, in 1992.