60 Fun Facts About Satyajit Ray

In which city was Satyajit Ray born in 1921?

He grew up in the house of his grandfather Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, which also housed the family printing press.

Ray's father Sukumar Ray was famous in Bengal as a pioneering writer of what?

His collection Abol Tabol is a classic; he died when Satyajit was two years old.

What was the name of the children's magazine founded by Ray's grandfather, which Ray revived in 1961?

The word means both 'news' and a popular Bengali sweet, and Ray drew, wrote and designed for it for the rest of his life.

In which town did Satyajit Ray study fine art from 1940, at the university founded by the poet of Gitanjali?

His mother insisted he go; Ray was reluctant but later credited painters Nandalal Bose and Benode Behari Mukherjee as major influences.

What subject did Ray complete his bachelor's degree in at Presidency College, Calcutta?

It was during his school days that Hollywood films by Chaplin, Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Lubitsch made a lasting impression on him.

In 1943 Ray started as a junior visualiser at D.J. Keymer, which was what kind of business?

He also designed book covers for the Signet Press and became one of India's leading typographers and jacket designers.

Who wrote the 1928 novel Pather Panchali, which Satyajit Ray adapted as his first film?

The children's version was renamed Aam Antir Bhepu (The Mango-Seed Whistle) and Ray featured his illustrations as shots in the film.

Which French director, in Calcutta in 1949 to shoot The River, encouraged Ray to film Pather Panchali?

Ray helped him scout locations in the countryside; he called Renoir a lifelong influence.

Which Italian neorealist film, seen in London in 1950, made Ray determined to become a filmmaker?

During six months in London he watched 99 films, but Vittorio De Sica's film had the most profound effect.

Which organisation did Ray found in 1947 with Chidananda Dasgupta to study foreign films?

They watched many American and Russian films; Ray was also a regular at the intellectual gatherings, or addas, at Coffee House.

Besides being sweethearts, what was Ray's relationship to Bijoya Das before their marriage?

Their son Sandip Ray also became a film director and served as his father's camera operator from 1984.

Roughly how long did Ray take to shoot Pather Panchali, starting in late 1952?

Funding kept running out; he refused money from backers who wanted to change the script and ignored government advice to add a happy ending.

Which American director saw unfinished Pather Panchali footage in India and hailed 'a great film-maker'?

MoMA's Monroe Wheeler had already encouraged Ray to finish it for a New York exhibition.

Who finally provided the loan that allowed Ray to complete Pather Panchali?

The government bought the film for the equivalent of about $60,000 and had turned it into a $700,000 profit by 1980.

Who composed the score for Pather Panchali and the rest of the Apu Trilogy?

The sitar master used classical Indian ragas; from Teen Kanya (1961) onwards Ray composed his own scores.

What is the name of Apu's elder sister in Pather Panchali?

Sarbajaya is their mother and Indir Thakrun is the elderly cousin who lives with the family.

Which award did Pather Panchali win at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival?

It was the inaugural award of that name, and one of eleven international prizes the film collected.

Which French New Wave director reportedly refused to see Pather Panchali as 'peasants eating with their hands'?

New York Times critic Bosley Crowther also complained about its loose structure, yet the film ran for eight months in the United States.

Aparajito (1956), the second Apu film, won the top prize at which festival?

The Golden Lion launched Ray's international career; critics Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak ranked it above Pather Panchali.

What is the English title of Apur Sansar (1959), the final film of the Apu Trilogy?

The Unvanquished is Aparajito and Song of the Little Road is Pather Panchali; The Big City is Mahanagar.

Which two actors, later Ray regulars, made their debuts in Apur Sansar?

Chatterjee played the adult Apu and Tagore his wife Aparna, who dies giving birth to their son Kajal.

Ray only decided to make the Apu films a trilogy after being asked about the idea where?

He had not planned a trilogy while making Aparajito, but the suggestion appealed to him.

Jalsaghar (The Music Room, 1958) is about the decline of which class of Bengali society?

Chhabi Biswas plays Biswambhar Roy; the film was shot at the Nimtita Rajbari in Murshidabad, though the music room itself was a studio set.

Which musician did Ray persuade to write more sombre pieces for Jalsaghar?

In 1981 the film sold 173,758 tickets in France, a record for an Indian film until Salaam Bombay! in 1988.

Devi (1960) stars Sharmila Tagore as a young wife who is treated as what by her father-in-law?

Ray feared the censor board would block a film about religious superstition, but Devi was spared.

At whose insistence was Ray commissioned in 1961 to make a documentary for Tagore's birth centenary?

With so little footage of Tagore available, Ray said the film took as much work as three features.

Ray's first colour film, Kanchenjungha (1962), is set during one afternoon in which hill town?

Ray used shifting light and mist to reflect the tension; a commercial crew in town at the same time failed to shoot a single scene because they only wanted sunshine.

Satyajit Ray's Charulata (1964) is based on the short story Nastanirh by which author?

Ray said it was the only film he would make exactly the same way if given a second chance.

Charulata earned Ray which prize at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival?

Ray is one of only four filmmakers to win the Silver Bear for Best Director more than once and holds the record for Golden Bear nominations, with seven.

Nayak (1966), starring Uttam Kumar as a matinée idol confiding in a journalist, takes place mostly on what?

It won a Critics Prize at Berlin but had a muted reception; it was also the last film shot for Ray by cinematographer Subrata Mitra.

Which two Hollywood stars were cast in Satyajit Ray's unmade 1967 sci-fi film The Alien?

The script came from Ray's 1962 short story 'Bankubabur Bandhu'; after Brando dropped out the producers tried James Coburn and Ray gave up.

Who shared copyright on Ray's The Alien script despite, Ray said, adding just one word?

Wilson had approached Ray through their mutual friend Arthur C. Clarke to represent him in Hollywood; Ray said he was never paid.

Which 1982 Hollywood blockbuster did Ray claim had plagiarised his script for The Alien?

Spielberg replied that he was a kid in high school when the script was circulating, although he had graduated in 1965.

Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1969) was based on a children's story written by whom?

Goopy the singer and Bagha the drummer first appeared in the family magazine in 1915; Ray composed the songs and music for the film.

In Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, who grants the two heroes their three boons?

The gifts only work when the pair are together, and clapping hands lets them conjure food and clothes or travel anywhere.

Why did Ray shoot Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne in black and white instead of colour as he had wanted?

It was one of his most expensive and hardest-to-finance projects, yet also one of his biggest commercial hits.

The evil king in Hirak Rajar Deshe (1980) alludes to India during what period?

It marked the culmination of Ray's political period, alongside the short Pikoo and the Hindi film Sadgati.

Which three films make up Ray's 'Calcutta trilogy' of the 1970s?

Conceived separately, they share themes of repression and corruption; Pratidwandi introduced negative scenes, dream sequences and abrupt flashbacks.

Ray's fictional detective Feluda first appeared in 1965. What is his real name?

He lives at 21 Rajani Sen Road in Ballygunge, and his cousin Topshe narrates the stories much as Watson does for Holmes.

Feluda's comic companion Jatayu, who joins the series in Sonar Kella, is a writer of what?

Jatayu's real name is Lalmohan Ganguli; Ray directed two Feluda films, Sonar Kella (1974) and Joi Baba Felunath (1978).

Ray's Professor Shonku has a pet cat named after which scientist?

The Shonku stories are presented as a diary discovered after the professor mysteriously disappeared.

Ray's first non-Bengali feature, Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977), was based on a story by which writer?

Set in Lucknow a year before the 1857 rebellion, its cast included Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Shabana Azmi and Richard Attenborough.

Which British actor-director appeared in Ray's The Chess Players?

V. S. Naipaul compared a scene in the film to a Shakespearean play: only three hundred words spoken, but 'terrific things happen'.

Ray had a heart attack in 1983 while filming which adaptation of a novel about fervent nationalism?

He had drafted a script for it in the 1940s; the finished film contained the first kiss ever shown in a Ray film.

What was Ray's last film, released in 1991, about a long-lost uncle whose visit to his niece arouses suspicion?

Critic Hal Hinson said it showed 'all the virtues of a master artist in full maturity'.

Which star presented Satyajit Ray with his Honorary Academy Award via video link in 1992?

Gravely ill in hospital, Ray still gave an acceptance speech calling it the best achievement of his movie-making career.

Which honour, India's highest civilian award, was given to Ray in 1992?

He also received an honorary degree from Oxford in 1978 and a record 37 Indian National Film Awards.

Ray's cinematographer Subrata Mitra is credited with which technique of reflecting light off cloth?

By reflecting light off cloth he could create diffused, realistic daylight even on a studio set.

Why did Ray always write a script in English before producing the Bengali version?

Art director Bansi Chandragupta's eye for detail matched Ray's own and shaped the look of the early films.

Ray designed four Latin-alphabet typefaces. Which two won an international competition in 1971?

Daphnis and Holiday Script were the other two; he also designed numerous Bengali typefaces for Sandesh.

Which Japanese director said not seeing Ray's films 'means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon'?

Ray met Kurosawa in Japan in the 1960s and considered him and Ingmar Bergman giants.

Wes Anderson dedicated which 2007 film to Satyajit Ray?

Scorsese, Coppola, Truffaut, Kiarostami, Nolan and many others have cited Ray's influence.

Which composer did Satyajit Ray name as his favourite, reflecting the classical structures of his films?

Critics have described the narrative structure of some of his films in terms of sonata, fugue and rondo forms.

What was the title of Ray's 1976 English-language collection of essays on cinema?

It discusses Indian film first, then Hollywood, Chaplin, Kurosawa and Italian neorealism.

How many films did Ray direct in total, including documentaries and shorts?

They range from the Apu Trilogy to the Feluda mysteries and a documentary on his teacher Benode Behari Mukherjee, The Inner Eye.

Which award did the President of France confer on Ray in 1987?

India had given him the Padma Bhushan in 1965 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1985, with the Bharat Ratna following shortly before his death.

Which Salman Rushdie novel features fish characters named after Ray's Goopy and Bagha?

Ray's work also turns up in Saul Bellow's Herzog and J. M. Coetzee's Youth.

Which MP and former actress accused Ray in 1980 of 'exporting poverty'?

She wanted him to make films representing 'Modern India'; Ray had himself publicly criticised colleague Mrinal Sen's Akash Kusum in the 1960s.

Aranyer Din Ratri (1970) adapted a novel by which Bengali poet and writer?

The film follows four urban young men on a forest holiday, and Pauline Kael praised its 'complex feeling of happiness' after its New York Film Festival premiere.

Which New York institution's exhibitions chief, Monroe Wheeler, urged Ray to finish Pather Panchali in 1954?

Wheeler wanted the film for an exhibition the next year; six months later John Huston saw the footage while scouting locations in India.