Satyajit Ray (May 2, 1921April 23, 1992)
was a Bengali Indian filmmaker. He is widely
regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th
century cinema. Born in the city of Calcutta
into a Bengali family prominent in the world
of arts and letters, Ray studied at Presidency
College and at the Visva-Bharati University,
at poet Rabindranath Tagore's Santiniketan.
Starting his career as a commercial artist,
Ray was drawn into filmmaking after meeting
French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing the
Italian neorealist film The Bicycle Thief during
a visit to London.
Ray
directed thirty-seven films, including feature
films, documentaries and shorts. Ray's first
film, Pather Panchali, won eleven international
prizes, including Best Human Document at Cannes.
Along with Aparajito and Apur Sansar, the film
forms the Apu trilogy. Ray worked on an array
of tasks, including scripting, casting, scoring,
cinematography, art direction, editing and designing
his own credit titles and publicity material.
Apart from making films, he was a fiction writer,
publisher, illustrator, graphic designer and
film critic. Ray received many major awards
in his career, including an Academy Honorary
Award in 1992.
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