By far the greatest in India, Satyajit Ray was among the world's greatest film directors. He was hugely talented and highly creative. Apart from film directing, Ray was an accomplished writer ( of children's stories, murder mysteries, fantasies, science fiction, plays in verse, essays, and screenplays ) as well as an artist ( he drew the illustrations in his stories, and the settings for his films ) and a musician ( he often set his own music in his films ). He also created his own fonts ! Heard of Ray Roman ?
Born in a family of literateurs ( his father wrote books inspired by Alice in Wonderland, and in the style of Edward Lear; his grandfather wrote children's stories which served as Ray's film scripts), Satyajit Ray grew up to be an advertising man. Then, during a film festival, he saw The Bicycle Thief by Vittorio de Sica. The rest, as they say, is history.
Ray decided film-making was his vocation. His first film was Pather Panchali ( The Story of the Road ). Inevitably, finances ran out; Ray showed the incomplete unedited version to the Chief Minister of West Bengal. There was no state budget for financing films ; so the budget had to come from the most appropriate department : the state Transport department.
The critical acclaim which Ray received for his first film was the precursor to a great era. Ray churned out films - the Apu trilogy, a triplet of short films, thrillers based on his fiction, children's movies, play-films, films in verse ... - serious and funny, historical and current, magnificent and plain, at once international and local. A string of awards followed him even to his hospital-bed where he recieved the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement.