Sathyajith Ray

Satyajit Ray was an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. Ray is widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

Satyajit Ray, (born May 2, 1921, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India—died April 23, 1992, Calcutta), Bengali motion-picture director, writer, and illustrator who brought the Indian cinema to world recognition with Pather Panchali (1955; The Song of the Road) and its two sequels, known as the Apu Trilogy.

According to Ray, “The Nimtita palace was perfect, except that the music room–it did have one, for Ganendra Narayan’s uncle Upendra Narayan Choudhury had been a patron of music much like the nobleman in our story–was not impressive enough to serve as the setting for the sumptuous soirées that I had planned.”

The series is based on Satyajit Ray’s four short stories: Spotlight, Bahurupiya, Barin Bhowmik-er Byaram (Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa) and Bipin Chowdhury’s Smritibhrom (Memory Loss).

Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa is inspired by Barin Bhowmik-er Byaram and features Manoj Bajpayee and Gajraj Rao. Last in the series, Spotlight, is inspired by Ray’s short story of the same name and stars Harshvardhan Kapoor, Akansha Ranjan Kapoor and Chandan Roy Sanyal.

Born: 2 May 1921, Kolkata

Died: 23 April 1992, Kolkata

Spouse: Bijoya Ray (m. 1949–1992)

Awards: Bharat Ratna, Academy Honorary Award, Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Padma Shri

Short stories: Feludar Goendagiri, The Mystery of the Pink Pearl, Byomjatrir Diary.