I was interested in both Western and Indian classical music.
SATYAJIT RAYI was interested in both Western and Indian classical music.
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 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 mix Indian instruments with Western instruments all the time.
SATYAJIT RAYThe only solutions that are ever worth anything are the solutions that people find themselves.
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 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 RAYI wouldn’t mind taking a rest for three or four months, but I have to keep on making films for the sake of my crew, who just wait for the next film because they’re not on a fixed salary.
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 RAYThe director is the only person who knows what the film is about.
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 RAYI’ve made seventeen or eighteen films now, only two of which have been original screenplays, all the others have been based on short stories or novels, and I find the long short story ideal for adaptation.
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 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 RAYAt the age when Bengali youth almost inevitably writes poetry, I was listening to European classical music.
SATYAJIT RAYEver since Two Daughters I’ve been composing my own music.
SATYAJIT RAY