My films play only in Bengal, and my audience is the educated middle class in the cities and small towns. They also play in Bombay, Madras and Delhi where there is a Bengali population.
SATYAJIT RAYMy films play only in Bengal, and my audience is the educated middle class in the cities and small towns. They also play in Bombay, Madras and Delhi where there is a Bengali population.
SATYAJIT RAYYou cannot go beyond a certain limit in your expenditure if you want to bring back money from your local market, which is very small after Pakistan.
SATYAJIT RAYWhat is attempted in these film is of course a synthesis. But it can be seen by someone who has his feet in both cultures. Someone who will bring to bear on the films involvement and detachment in equal measure.
SATYAJIT RAYI had developed this habit of writing scenarios as a hobby. I would find out which stories had been sold to be made into films and I would write my own treatment and then compare it.
SATYAJIT RAYEver since Two Daughters I’ve been composing my own music.
SATYAJIT RAYThe conception of background music is changing. You use less and less of it these days.
SATYAJIT RAYIt was only after Pather Panchali had some success at home that I decided to do a second part. But I didn’t want to do the same kind of film again, so I made a musical.
SATYAJIT RAYI don’t start a film with the heroine but with the cinema subject. If there is a woman in the story, she has to be of a particular type. It’s not as if I start with Madhuri Dixit and then think what kind of film.
SATYAJIT RAYI was interested in both Western and Indian classical music.
SATYAJIT RAYWhen I write an original story I write about people I know first-hand and situations I’m familiar with. I don’t write stories about the nineteenth century.
SATYAJIT RAYI think they quite like me when I work because I’m one of the safer directors to back, because even if my films don’t bring their costs in back home, once they’re shown outside of India they manage to cover the costs.
SATYAJIT RAYMost of the top actors and actresses may be working in ten or twelve films at the same time, so they will give one director two hours and maybe shoot in Bombay in the morning and Madras in the evening. It happens.
SATYAJIT RAYWell the Bombay film wasn’t always like how it is now. It did have a local industry. There were realistic films made on local scenes. But it gradually changed over the years.
SATYAJIT RAYParticularly in the final stages I always find that I’m rushed. It’s dangerous when you’re rushed in the editing stage, most of my early films are flawed in the cutting.
SATYAJIT RAYThere’s always some room for improvisation.
SATYAJIT RAYFor a film maker, an Oscar is like a Nobel Prize, you know. So I am very happy… delighted. There is nothing more after this. I cannot hope to get anything more prestigious.
SATYAJIT RAY