Introduction
Satyajit Ray is one of the greatest movie directors of all time. He was born on May 2 in Calcutta, presently known as West Bengal, to a Bengali family. His father’s name was Upendra Kishore Ray. He was a writer. Satyajit’s grandfather was a great philosopher. When Satyajit was two and a half years old, his father passed away at the age of 36. His mother’s name was Suprabha Ray. After the death of his father, his mother raised him.
Education
Satyaj It Ray did his early studies at a government high school in Calcutta. After that, he graduated from the famous Presidency College, and many other great personalities studied at that college, like C.V. Raman, Subhash Chandra Bose, and C. Subramanyam. Satyajit completed his graduation from Presidency College. After that, he also went to Shantiniketan, which was established by Rabindranath Tagore. Satyajeet Ray fell in love with Oriental art there and subsequently met great painters like Nandlal Bose and Vinod Kumar Mukherjee.
First job
Satyajit started working as a junior visualizer for an advertising company in 1943, which was a British company. Satyajit said that all the British who worked in this company were paid a good salary, whereas the Indians were paid much less in comparison to the Britishers. Satyajeet learned visual design there, and after working for a few years, he started working in a press, where he used to design the covers of books. The cover of Jawaharlal Nehru’s book “The Discovery of India” was also designed by Satyajit.
Satyajit Ray’s career as a film director
Satyajit started working on his first film, which became very famous and successful. The name of the film was “Pather Panchali.” The film was based on writing, and its writer was Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. When he was designing the cover of his novel, he started reading the novel. He was so impressed with the story that he decided that he had to make this movie. After that, Satyajit went to London for agency work, watched more than 100 films there, and started studying films.
After that, Satyajit established the Kolkata Film Society in 1947, where many foreign films were studied, and by watching those films, he used to learn filmmaking. A film director from France came there to shoot his movie in 1949. Satyajit helped him with the shooting and gave him the concept for his film, Pather Panchali. The French director had also told him that the concept of this film was very good and he should work on it. After that, Satyajit Ray never looked back and started working on his film.
But the journey was not at all easy for Satyajit Ray because, at the time when the country gained independence, people did not have enough money, and even Satyajit did not have enough money to make a film. The only thing he had was passion. In 1949, he married Bijoya Das in a love marriage. At that time, Satyajit was with all the people who were working on the movie. They were not that experienced, but still, they said that the movie had to be made. The crew did not have much experience making the movie. They did not have money either. But the story of the movie was amazing, and Satyajit had a lot of faith in his story.
When the shooting of the film Pather Panchali started, many people told Satyajeet that if you don’t have money, we will help you with the money, but you will have to make changes for that. But Satyajeet replied, No, I will not do anything like that. The government also told him to just change its ending because it was very unhappy with the ending of the movie, but Satyajit also told them that I am not going to change this ending either.
The shooting of the movie started in 1952, and it had been about two and a half years. The shooting of the movie could not be completed due to a lack of money. Then the West Bengal government gave Satyajit every bit of funding to complete this film, and when this film was completed and released in 1955, the name Satyajit Ray earned was amazing. He received many awards and respect in India and abroad. This film was released in countries like France, America, London, and Paris.
This film ran for a long time. The story of the film is based on a very poor family in a small village. They have very big dreams. The parents—the little girl Durga and the youngest boy Appu—on whom this film is based. Later, two more parts of this film were made, which came to be known as “The Apu Trilogy.”.
Satyajit Ray’s international career
Satyajeet Ray’s international career began after the success of his second film, “Aparajito.” This film shows the struggle for love between a boy named Appu and his mother. Critics like Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak gave this film a much higher status than his first film. This film by Satyajit won the Golden Lion at the Venus International Film Festival.
This earned Satyajeet a lot of praise. Before completing the film “The Apu Trilogy,” Satyajit had directed two more films, one of which was a comedy film, “Paras Pathar,” and another was “Jhalsagar,” which told about the downfall of a landlord, and this film is considered one of his most important films. While making “Aparajito,” he did not decide about making Part 3. But when he was asked at the Venus International Film Festival, he decided to make Part 3, and finally, in 1959, the third part of “The Apu Trilogy,” “Apur Sansar,” was released.
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After “Apur Sansar,” he produced the film “Devi” in 1960, in which she brought out the superstitions of Hindu society. Satyajit was afraid that the sensor board might block or re-record his film, but nothing like this happened, and the film also received a National Award. All his movies were based on society; whatever was going on in society at that time was shown in his films. Satyajit made a documentary film on Rabindranath Tagore at the request of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961.
In 1962, the film “Kanchenjunga,” directed by Satyajit Ray, was released. It was based on his first screenplay and was his first color film. The film tells the story of an afternoon spent with the Darjeeling high-class family.
Satyajit then visited Japan and met the famous director Akira Kurosawa, for whom he had great respect. He then made a film in 1964 called “Charulatha.” After the release of Charulatha Satyajit Ray, he started writing films of different genres, such as science fiction films, detective films, and historical drama films.
Satyajit Ray is honored with the Padma Bhushan Award
In 1965, Satyajit Ray was honored with the Padma Bhushan Award by the Indian government. In 1967, Satyajit Ray wrote the script for a film named “The Aliens,” which was based on a short story written by him in 1962, but due to some controversy, the film could not be released.
In 1982, a Hollywood movie named “E-T Extra-Terrestrial” was released, and after being inspired by it, the film “Koi Mil Gaya” was made. After the release of the Hollywood movie “ET,” Satyajit Ray was very angry because his entire script was copied and a different movie was made, and he did not know anything about it. And neither did he get any credit for it nor did he get any money.
Satyajit Ray’s Hindi film
In 1970, Satyajit Ray made the film “Shatranj Ke Khiladi,” which was released in Hindi. This film was based on a short story written by Munshi Premchand. The film had an expensive star cast, including Sanjeev Kumar, Syed Jafri, Shabana Azmi, Amjad Khan, and Richard Attenborough.
Satyajit’s Ray heart attack
In 1983, Satyajit Ray had a heart attack during the shooting of the film “Ghare-Baire,” and after this, his working capacity changed a lot. The film “Ghare-Baire” was completed by Satyajit Ray’s son in 1984. In 1985, Satyajit Ray was awarded the “Dadasaheb Phalke Award,” which is considered the best award in Indian cinema.
In 1987, Satyajit was also awarded the highest French civilian award by the president of France. After that, due to the poor health condition of Satyajit, many scripts remained pending, and after that, the doctor also advised him to stay at home.
Satyajit Ray’s death
In 1992, due to his deteriorating health, he was admitted to a hospital. During this time, he was awarded the “Bharat Ratna Award,” and he received the Lifetime Achievement award at the “Oscars.” No other Indian director has received it to date. And after receiving the Oscar award, he died 24 days later in 1992, i.e., on April 23, 1992. After his death, there was a lot of commotion in Kolkata, and thousands of people gathered around his house to pay their last respects to him.
