Sandip Ray

Sandip Ray ( _bn. সন্দীপ রায় "Shôndip Rae") (b. 8 September 1954) is a film director living in the city of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He is the only son of the noted Bengali director Satyajit Ray, and Bijoya Ray. He started his professional career in film at the age of 22 as assistant director on his father's film "Shatranj Ke Khiladi" (The Chess Players, 1977). Prior to this he had aided his father's work in various capacities including still photographer on set. His own directorial debut was "Phatik Chand" (1983) -- the film received an award in the International Children's Film Festival in Vancouver.

Sandip Ray is also a noted photographer. He was the director of photography on Satyajit Ray's last three films, "Ganashatru" (An Enemy of the People, 1988), "Shakha Proshakha" (The Branches of the Tree, 1991) and "Agantuk" (The Visitor, 1991).

Sandip Ray also guided the children's magazine "Sandesh", which was founded by his great-grandfather Upendrakishore Ray, and continued by his grandfather Sukumar Ray and his father Satyajit Ray. From 1992, after the death of Satyajit, Sandip was the Joint Editor of the Sandesh (magazine). From 2003 till date he has been the editor of the magazine.

Sandip Ray has recently come up with his account of the time he has had with Feluda, The famous Bengali detective created by his father, in a book named "Aami aar Feluda", published by Deep Prakashan. Aami aar Feluda was one of the best sellers in the last Kolkata Book Fair. First published in the magazine "Sukhi Grihokon" as a short series, "Aami aar Feluda" retains the flavour of "Ekei Bole Shooting", written by Satyajit Ray. Sandip's book deals with the background stories of all Feluda Movies and Telefilms. "Aami aar Feluda" is ghost-written by author Sebabrata Banerjee. Sebabrata has tried to follow the smart and fluent style of writing introduced by Satyajit Ray which has made the new Feluda number a good reading experience. He has made a video-documentary film on Late Kishore Kumar in the year 1989. That VHS named "Zindagi Ek Safar" was sponsored by Bata India Ltd. and presented by Bombino Video. Ray has again taken an initiative to make the documentary out in disc format under the banner of Moser Baer Homevideo and has prepared some new additions of interviews given by Shah Rukh Khan, Rajesh Roshan, Shaan, Jatin and Poornima (Sushma Sreshtha) along with an exclusive recorded programme of Kishore Kumar at BBC studio. He has some more plannings for making Hindi Feature Films with Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee and Hrithik Roshan which all are in a very premature stage.

Filmography

Sandip Ray has directed the following films.

# "Tintorettor Jishu" (2008) (announced)
# "Kailashey Kelenkari" (2007)
# "Nishijapon" (2005)
# "Bombaiyer Bombete" (2003)
# "Target" (1995)
# "Uttoran" (1994)
# "Goopy Bagha Phire Elo" (1991)
# "Kishore Kumar" (1988) (documentary)
# "Satyajit Ray Presents" (1986) (mini) TV Series
# "Phatik Chand" (1983)

Books

# "Aami Aar Feluda" (2006, Ghost written by Sebabrata Banerjee)

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0712994/ IMDb Entry for Sandip Ray]
* [http://www.calcuttaweb.com/cinema/sandipray.shtml Profile at calcuttaweb.com]