On Satyajit Ray’s death anniversary let us remember the legendary filmmaker’s career.
- Satyajit Ray struggled in his childhood as his father passed away when he was barely three.
- Satyajit Ray’s earlier stints included working for a publishing house.
- Satyajit Ray even worked on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s book ‘Discovery of India’.
- Pather Panchali, became the first film of Satyajit Ray to win international acclaim.
- In the sixties, Ray visited Japan and took particular pleasure in meeting the filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, for whom he had very high regard. While at home, he would take an occasional break from the hectic city life by going to places such as Darjeeling or Puri to complete a script in isolation.
- Ray’s first film, Pather Panchali (1955), 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 directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. He was also a fiction writer, publisher, illustrator, calligrapher, music composer, graphic designer and film critic.
- Satyajit Ray won the National Award for the Best Director six times, the most by any filmmaker
- The only Hindi feature film Satyajit Ray ever directed is Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977)
- Other films in this period include Mahanagar (The Big City), Teen Kanya (Three Daughters), Abhijan (The Expedition), Kapurush (The Coward) and Mahapurush (Holy Man).
- Satyajit Ray became the first Indian to receive an Honorary Academy Award in 1992.
