“Frankly speaking, I’d feel out of my depth making a Hindi film or for that matter, any regional film other than in Bengali”, says none other than the legendary numero uno filmmaker SATYAJIT RAY to JYOTHI VENKATESH in this rare interview which appeared for the first time 40 years ago in the now-defunct Free Press Bulletin dated January 20, 1979. We cull the interview for the readers of CINEBUSTER to mark the special occasion of the wizard filmmaker’s 98th birth anniversary which was celebrated on May 2 this year.
Satyajit Ray (1921-1992) was a renowned filmmaker, music composer, author and screenwriter. Born in the family which is known for its prominence in literature and arts, Satyajit too started off as a commercial artist with keen interest in independent filmmaking. Vittorio De Sica’s movie Bicycle Thieves and meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir are said to have influenced him greatly.
Ray initially worked as a graphic artist, before moving on to filmmaking. He founded the Calcutta Film Society in 1947. During the Second World War, he became friendly with many American soldiers stationed in Kolkata from whom he learnt about the latest American films being shown in Kolkata.
In his illustrious career, Ray directed 37 films, which included feature films, documentaries and short ones. He shot to fame right from his first film, Pather Panchali, winning 11 international awards. Besides direction, he was also involved in scripting, casting, scoring, cinematography, art direction, editing and advertising. He also wrote detective stories for children and two of his characters Feluda, a professional detective, and Professor Shonku a scientist became very famous.
Ray was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1985. The French government awarded him their highest civilian award, Le’gion d’honour in 1989.He received the honorary Oscar for lifetime achievements in 1991 and in the same year he was awarded the Bharat Ratna.
He received honorary doctorates from many famous universities around the globe, including the Oxford University.
“Regional Cinema has moved from Bengal to the South because there are better filmmakers in South today who are making content-oriented movies today,” quipped Satyajit Ray addressing a crowded press conference at the Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi, where his film Shatranj Ke Khilari figured as an entry in the Indian Panorama of the Internationalo Film Festival of India (IFFI).
“I have been impressed by films like Malayalam films like Thampu by Aravindan and Kodiyettam by Adoor Gopalakrishnan”, said Mr Satyajit Ray who is fondly referred to as Manekda and added that during the film fete, he had solely concentrated on films made by Indian directors all over the country instead of devoting his time to seeing the European films only since he had already seen a vast majority of them in other major International film festivals.
Satyajit Ray said that over the last couple of years, there have been several feelers from abroad to him for making films. “I was requested to make a film to be financed by Columbia Pictures. I may be reviving the project which was shelved for the time being. It will be a science fiction in two versions- English for consumption of the audiences abroad and Bengali for the local audience”.
Ray added. “I have made a very belated delayed entry in Hindi Cinema and also made a rapid exit from the film scene in Bombay only because of my lack of confidence in Hindi even after making my maiden film Shatranj Ke Khilari. Frankly speaking, I’d feel out of my depth making a Hindi film or for that matter, any regional film other than in Bengali”, he sighed.
Mr Ray is of the opinion that an International film festival ought to be held only in film producing centers like Bombay, Madras or for that matter Bangalore, Hyderabad or Calcutta, if a festival is of international caliber and expected to achieve tangible results.
“Delhi is the most unsuitable venue for a festival”, he said, without mincing words, as a matter of fact since he is known for calling a spade a spade. Because major countries in the world do not send their better films to India and prefer to send them to other important festivals, he said the standard of the films entered in the Seventh International film festival of India in New Delhi was not at all above average.
At the moment, Mr Ray is toying with the idea of making a film on the dice play in Mahabharata. “If I do not venture into making any project currently, the reason is I have got to think of my foreign audience too, apart from the Indian audience. While setting out to make a film for the Indian audience you must establish every character in detail, you need not waste unnecessary footage while making a film for the audience abroad,” he chuckled.
Referring to the acute paucity of cinema houses in West Bengal, Mr Ray said that the emphasis on the part of the government should be to construct more and more cinema houses to screen a large number of films, especially contented oriented and off-beat experimental films made by the new and talented directors.
“Unfortunately in West Bengal today there are more number of films which are waiting for their turn to be released and very less number of theatres. As a result, believe it or not, even I had to wait for a year to release Shatranj Ke Khilari, which I made in Calcutta.”
Currently, Mr Ray does not even have a single feature film on the floors. However, he is all set to make a film on music in Western Rajasthan for the French Television. It will be a co-production with the government of India; he said and added that he was waiting for a final clearance from the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting before he is able to go abroad with the project.
Talking about his film Shatranj Ke Khilari which stars Sanjeev Kumar and Saeed Jaffery with Amjad Khan and Shabana Azmi, he said that he enjoyed making the film even though there were quite a few unpleasant troubles over its distribution.
On being asked what prompted him to say yes to the offer to direct a Hindi film like Shatranj Ke Khilari, he said, “I took up Suresh Jindal’s offer to make the film for him only because he gave me complete freedom and conceived the project based on the late revered Munshi Premchand’s story”. Besides Shatranj Ke Khilari, the only other Hindi telefilm that Satyajit Ray has made is Sadgati which starred Om Puri and Smita Patil.
Ray stated bluntly in his own inimitable style that earlier when a showman like Raj Kapoor had offered to make a film with him, he didn’t accept it because he did not like the subject which he had chosen for him. Ray signed off by declaring that commercial films do not at all fascinate him, as a filmmaker.
Satyajit Ray’s magic on-screen (The classics)
Pather Panchali- 1955, Aparajito-1956, Parash Pathar – 1958, Jalsaghar – 1958, Apur Sansar – 1959, Devi – 1960, Teen Kanya(The Postmaster, Monihara ,Samapti) – 1961, Kanchenjungha -1962, Abhijan- 1962, Mahanagar -1963, Charulata- 1964, Kapurush-O-Mahapurush – 1965, Kapurush- 1965, Mahapurush- 1965, Nayak – 1966, Chiriyakhana- 1967, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne – 1968, Aranyer Din Ratri- 1969, Pratidwandi – 1970, Seemabaddha – 1971, The Inner Eye – 1972, Ashani Sanket – 1973, Sonar Kella- 1974, 25. Jana Aranya – 1975, Hirak Rajar Deshe – 1980, Ghare Baire – 1984, Ganashatru – 1990, Shakha Proshakha – 1992, Agantuk – 1992, Shatranj Ke Khilari – 1977, Sadgati – 1981
