When Big B went to Satyajit Ray’s room: ‘It was marvellous, you’d wonder where you are'(Photo Credit –Youtube/wikimedia)
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Taking a stroll down the memory lane, megastar Amitabh Bachchan recalled his meeting with India’s cultural icon Satyajit Ray. In a recent chat, he revealed that the latter’s room was filled with books and posters.
Ray is considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. He was a director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and composer. He is celebrated for works including ‘The Apu Trilogy’, ‘The Music Room’, ‘The Big City’, ‘Charulata’ and the ‘Goopy–Bagha’ trilogy.
Host of the quiz-based reality show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ season 15, Amitabh Bachchan welcomed Varun Kesarwani from Ayodhya, UP, the rollover contestant in the episode 13th of the ‘Rishtey Special’ week.
For the Rs 3,20,000 question, Varun was asked, “Which film director designed the logo of the Sahitya Akademi?” The options given were- A) Adoor Gopalakrishnan, B) Satyajit Ray, C) Hrishikesh Mukherjee, and D) Bhalji Pendharkar”. Varun took the double dip lifeline – and gave the correct answer which was ‘Satyajit Ray’.
The ‘Agneepath’ fame actor said, “The brilliance of Satyajit is reflected in the logo of Sahitya Akademi. He was a trained graphic artist. He has designed the covers and posters of many books. He used to design the title cards of his films himself. He made some fantastic films.”
Sharing an anecdote of his meeting with the filmmaker, Amitabh Bachchan said: “I once had the good fortune of going over to his house to meet him. He called me to his room. It was a marvellous room. It was filled with documents, books and posters lying all around, just unkempt. You’d wonder where you are!”
“But let me tell you something, if he needed something like a piece of paper he’d find it in a snap. He used to make a lot of drawings in there. He was very skilled at it. If you were to watch his films in frames, every frame looks like a painting,” added Mr Amitabh Bachchan.
On the occasion of the birth centenary of Ray, the International Film Festival of India, in recognition of the auteur’s legacy, rechristened in 2021 its annual Lifetime Achievement award to “Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award”.
