Quotes by Satyajit Ray

About Satyajit Ray:

Satyajit Ray was an Indian filmmaker. Ray was born in the city of Calcutta into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature. Starting his career as a commercial artist, Ray was drawn into independent filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing Vittorio De Sica's Italian neorealist 1948 film Bicycle Thieves during a visit to London.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Last, but not least -- in fact, this is most important -- you need a happy ending. However, if you can create tragic situations and jerk a few tears before the happy ending, it will work much better.

Satyajit Ray

At the age when Bengali youth almost inevitably writes poetry, I was listening to European classical music.

Satyajit Ray

When I'm shooting on location, you get ideas on the spot - new angles. You make not major changes but important modifications, that you can't do on a set. I do that because you have to be economical.

Satyajit Ray

When 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 Ray

What 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 Ray

Well 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 Ray

There's always some room for improvisation.

Satyajit Ray

There is a ban on Indian films in Pakistan, so that's half of our market gone.

Satyajit Ray

The only solutions that are ever worth anything are the solutions that people find themselves.

Satyajit Ray

The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.

Satyajit Ray

Sometimes a director is making three films. Perhaps he is shooting a film in Madras and a film in Bombay and he can't leave Madras as some shooting has to be done, so he directs by telephone. The shooting takes place. On schedule.

Satyajit Ray

Particularly 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 Ray

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 Ray

My cameraman and I devised a method, which we started using from my second film, which applies mainly to day scenes shot in the studio, where we used bounced light instead of direct light. We agreed with this thing of four or five shadows following t...

Satyajit Ray

I'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 Ray

I 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 Ray

I 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 Ray

It 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 Ray

I 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 Ray

I mix Indian instruments with Western instruments all the time.

Satyajit Ray

Author Bio

  • NameSatyajit Ray
  • DescriptionIndian filmmaker
  • BornMay 2, 1921
  • DiedApril 23, 1992
  • CountryIndia
  • ProfessionFilm Director; Writer; Composer; Film Producer; Screenwriter
  • AwardsSangeet Natak Akademi Award; Padma Shri; Padma Vibhushan; Filmfare Awards; Legion Of Honour; Ramon Magsaysay Award; Dadasaheb Phalke Award; Padma Bhushan; Bharat Ratna