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.

In the sixties Ray visited Japan and took particular pleasure in meeting the filmmaker Akira Kurosawa for whom he had very high regard. It had the first kiss fully portrayed in Ray's films. Ray studied at Ballygunge Government High School Calcutta and completed his B.

Starting his career as a commercial artist Ray was drawn into independent filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing Vittorio De Sica's Italian neorealist 1948 film Bicycle Thieves during a visit to London. Ray's first film Pather Panchali (1955) won eleven international prizes including Best Human Documentary at the Cannes Film Festival.