Christopher Nolan
"I have had the pleasure of watching Mr Ray's 'Pather Panchali' recently, which I hadn't seen before. I think it is one of the best films ever made. It is an extraordinary piece of work."
◄ IMDb Polls
Poll: Ray - The Inspiration
Year 2021 marks Satyajit Ray's 100th birth anniversary. He is probably the biggest and most renowned filmmaker from India. His 'Apu Trilogy' is ranked among the greatest in the history of world cinema. He has been an inspiration to a lot of Hollywood filmmakers.
Which of the praises from some renowned personalities do you find the most appropriate?
Source: 11 Greatest Filmmakers Who Were Inspired By Satyajit Ray
Make Your Choice
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Martin Scorsese
"I'm totally in awe of the movie Kalpana. It’s a genuine dance film. In other words, a film which is not just about dance, but there is dance in movement, composition and energy... I‘m also a big fan of Satyajit Ray’s body of work. The few interactions I had with Ray are memories I treasure" -
Keanu Reeves
"My only understanding of India (in his younger days) was through the Satyajit Ray films I watched in film festival after film festival. They are incredible. That is how I perceive India — real, warm and unaffected" -
Julia Roberts
"Not even in Hollywood do we have a director of Ray’s caliber today. When special effects and technical superiority were unknown to the cinema, he created masterpieces in the simplest form. I still wonder how fabulously he used Madhabi Mukherjee’s eyes in mid and tight close-ups in Charulata" -
Meryl Streep
"His handling of actress Madhabi Mukherjee in Charulata shows how much respect and dignity Ray gave to his actresses. That itself is the hallmark of a true director. I have not an iota of doubt that if Ray worked in Hollywood, he would have proved a tough competition for the likes of Sir David Lean, Francis Ford Coppola and Sir Alan Parker" -
Audrey Hepburn
"The Academy Board of Governors has voted to award an Honorary Oscar to the great Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Academy recognizes Mr Ray’s rare mastery of the arts of motion pictures and his profound humanism which has had an indelible influence on filmmakers and audiences throughout the world…" -
Wes Anderson
"I started to go [to India] because I wanted to work there. Satyajit Ray’s films are part of what drew me to India, and I’ve seen and know a lot of his work… For me, Ray was one of the ideal role models for the kind of director I would like to be. He’s somebody who wrote his own scripts. He often adapted books, but he also created his own material. He was regional and had his own area in West Bengal. He had his own sources of money. He had a little family operation to make his movies, and he made a lot of movies. And they’re often very personal… Somewhere along the way, he started composing the scores for his movies, which I recently heard was for expediency, because he felt like he could turn them around a lot faster than what he was getting from the people he was working with" -
Francis Ford Coppola
"Whenever someone speaks from Kolkata, I remember Satyajit Ray's call, praising me for 'Godfather I'. He complimented me particularly for my discovery, Al Pacino, whom he considered the best actor of the 1970s. According to him, Marlon Brando was untouchable in 'Godfather'. We know of Indian cinema through Ray's works and, to me, his best is ‘Devi', a cinematic milestone" -
George Lucas
"When I went to college we studied the Satyajit Ray period of Indian cinema, and was very important to us as film students." -
Akira Kurosawa
"The quiet but deep observation, understanding and love of the human race, which are characteristic of all his films, have impressed me greatly. … I feel that he is a “giant” of the movie industry. Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon. I can never forget the excitement in my mind after seeing it (Pather Panchali). It is the kind of cinema that flows with the serenity and nobility of a big river. People are born, live out their lives, and then accept their deaths. Without the least effort and without any sudden jerks, Ray paints his picture, but its effect on the audience is to stir up deep passions. How does he achieve this? There is nothing irrelevant or haphazard in his cinematographic technique. In that lies the secret of its excellence." -
Elia Kazan
"I have admired his films for many years and for me he is the filmic voice of India, speaking for the people of all classes of the country…He is the most sensitive and eloquent artist and it can truly be said in his case that when we honor him we are honoring ourselves."
