On the anniversary of his birth, we look back at the interview in which Satyajit Ray described the Indian audience as being ‘unsophisticated’ and discussed their lack of exposure.
The 102nd birthday of the renowned writer, director, and artist Satyajit Ray is May 2. In addition to many others, he is also known for classic movies like Pather Panchali (1955), Charulata (1964), and Ghare Baire (1984). The director has a reputation for speaking his opinion. We examine his remarks about the crowd in honor of his birthday. At the time, he remembers dealing with criticism for the Devi film, which starred Sharmila Tagore.
In 1989, Satyajit spoke with French journalist Pierre Andre Boutang about the movie in his 1960 film. In the movie, Sharmila played a young woman who is thought to be an avatar of the goddess Kali alongside Soumitra Chatterjee and Chhabi Biswas.
In the previous interview, Satyajit stated, “I once made a movie called the goddess Devi, which dealt with religious dogmatism. It didn’t condemn religion per se; rather, it targeted dogmatism, the extreme version of religion.However, some are claiming in the media that Mr. Ray is not a Hindu and that his films are hostile to Hinduism. However, because they are illiterate, you cannot consider them. India sees a lot of instances like these.
If you look at the public as a whole, we have a rather backward audience despite the film society movement and everything else.
“An unsophisticated audience, exposed primarily to commercial Hindi cinema,” he continued. You are therefore faced with this issue, but you continue to make the types of movies that you want to, just as I do. I can only produce the types of movies that capture my interest and inspire my creativity.
