Satyajit Ray Quotes

21 Sourced Quotes

I wouldn't mind taking a rest for three or four months, but I have to keep on making films for the sake of my crew, who just wait for the next film because they're not on a fixed salary.

Satyajit Ray
When I'm shooting on location, you get ideas on the spot - new angles. You make not major changes but important modifications, that you can't do on a set. I do that because you have to be economical.

Satyajit Ray
You cannot go beyond a certain limit in your expenditure if you want to bring back money from your local market, which is very small after Pakistan.

Satyajit Ray
When I write an original story I write about people I know first-hand and situations I'm familiar with. I don't write stories about the nineteenth century.

Satyajit Ray
Well the Bombay film wasn't always like how it is now. It did have a local industry. There were realistic films made on local scenes. But it gradually changed over the years.

Satyajit Ray
Cinema's characteristic forte is its ability to capture and communicate the intimacies of the human mind.

Satyajit Ray
It was only after Pather Panchali had some success at home that I decided to do a second part. But I didn't want to do the same kind of film again, so I made a musical.

Satyajit Ray
Sometimes a director is making three films. Perhaps he is shooting a film in Madras and a film in Bombay and he can't leave Madras as some shooting has to be done, so he directs by telephone. The shooting takes place. On schedule.

Satyajit Ray
My films play only in Bengal, and my audience is the educated middle class in the cities and small towns. They also play in Bombay, Madras and Delhi where there is a Bengali population.

Satyajit Ray
The only solutions that are ever worth anything are the solutions that people find themselves.

Satyajit Ray
There is a ban on Indian films in Pakistan, so that's half of our market gone.

Satyajit Ray
I've made seventeen or eighteen films now, only two of which have been original screenplays, all the others have been based on short stories or novels, and I find the long short story ideal for adaptation.

Satyajit Ray
I never imagined that any of my films, especially Pather Panchali, would be seen throughout this country or in other countries. The fact that they have is an indication that, if you're able to portray universal feelings, universal relations, emotions, and characters, you can cross certain barriers and reach out to others, even non-Bengalis.

Satyajit Ray
The conception of background music is changing. You use less and less of it these days.

Satyajit Ray
I had developed this habit of writing scenarios as a hobby. I would find out which stories had been sold to be made into films and I would write my own treatment and then compare it.

Satyajit Ray
The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.

Satyajit Ray
Most of the top actors and actresses may be working in ten or twelve films at the same time, so they will give one director two hours and maybe shoot in Bombay in the morning and Madras in the evening. It happens.

Satyajit Ray
Last, but not least — in fact, this is most important — you need a happy ending. However, if you can create tragic situations and jerk a few tears before the happy ending, it will work much better.

Satyajit Ray
Particularly in the final stages I always find that I'm rushed. It's dangerous when you're rushed in the editing stage, most of my early films are flawed in the cutting

Satyajit Ray
If the theme is simple, you can include a hundred details that create the illusion of actuality better.

Satyajit Ray
I mix Indian instruments with Western instruments all the time.

Satyajit Ray