Satyajit Ray's Biography

Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Composer, Writer, Graphic Designer

Born: May 2, 1921, Kolkata (Calcutta), India

Died: April 23, 1992, Calcutta, India

Satyajit Ray, standing 6′-4″ tall, was a towering figure in the world of cinema. He studied at the university in Calcutta and later joined Shantiniketan, Rabindranath Tagore’s university to study art. He began his career as a commercial artist (1943-56). He founded Calcutta’s first film society in 1947 and made his first film, Pather Panchali (1955) while working at an advertising agency. Pather Panchali was an immediate success and won Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival. Pather Panchali with his Aparajito (1956, The Unvanquished) and Apur Sansar (1959, The World of Apu) are known as ‘Apu Trilogy’. His later films include Jalsaghar (1958, The Music Room), Kanchenjunga (1962), Charulata (1964, The Lonely Wife), Ashanti Sanket (1973, Distant Thunder), The Chess Players (1977), The Home and The World (1984), Ganashatru (1989, Public Enemy), and Agantuk (1990, The Stranger).

Ray also edited Sandesh, a children’s magazine and wrote numerous fiction and nonfiction works. In 1992 he received an honorary Academy Award.

This short biography with a focus on cinema and his growth as a filmmaker, is organised as under:

• Growing up, 1921-39
• At Shantiniketan, 1940-42
• Advertising & Graphic Design, 1943
• Calcutta Film Society, 1947
• Encounter With Jean Renoir, 1949
• The ‘Bicycle Thieves’ Effect, 1950
• Making of Pather Panchali, 1950-55
• Triumph of Pather Panchali, 1955
• A Film a Year, 1956-1981
• Ray’s Literary Career, 1961-1992
• The Final Offerings, 1984-1992