I think they quite like me when I work because I'm one of the safer directors to back, because even if my films don't bring their costs in back home, once they're shown outside of India they manage to cover the costs.

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.