Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray (May 2 1921 - April 23 1992) was a Bengali director most known for his Apu trilogy (the films Pather Panchali, Aparajito, and The World of Apu.). Born into a relatively wealthy family in Calcutta?, Ray was well-educated and spent many years as a layout artist in a publishing house; inspired by the novel Pather Panchali, he decided to make it into a film and shot it on location using friends as actors, putting up the funding himself. Partway through filming he ran out of funds; the Bengal government loaned him the rest, allowing him to finish the film. The film was successful both artistically and commercially, winning notice at the 1956 [Cannes film festival]? and providing a boon to the Indian film industry). Ray's work is tends to be both realistic and subdued; his early work is compassionate and touching; his later work, while more political, is also at times cynical, but still infused with his typical humor.