Birth anniversary special: Satyajit Ray’s rare photos with world cinema icons Akira Kurosawa, Andrzej Wazda and others

There’s little that remains unanalysed about Satyajit Ray’s cinema. His works made such an impact that Akira Kurosawa once said, "Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon." Still these extremely rare photos of Satyajit Ray with some of the greatest filmmakers of his time make us wonder about the legacy Ray has left behind. On the auteur’s 102^nd birth anniversary, here's going back in time with some rare pictures:

SRFTI to screen digitally restored version of Satyajit Ray’s 'Shatranj ke Khilari'

The two met each other for the first time in 1964 when Satyajit Ray was asked to present to him the Selznick Golden Laurel Award for his film Winter Light, a part of his ‘Faith Trilogy’. The other two being 'Silence' and 'Through A Glass Darkly'.

Satyajit Ray and Roman Polanski met each other during the 16th edition of Berlin Film Festival in 1966. It was also the phase when Polanski's 'Repulsion' had just released. Though his personal tragedies and demons have sometimes overshadowed his work, there’s no denying the impact Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski has had on cinema.

Satyajit Ray had mentioned in detail about his meeting with the legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa in his book 'Our Films, Their Films'. Ray’s first meeting with Kurosawa happened at a Chinese restaurant in a quiet back street of Tokyo. The restaurant was also Kurosawa’s favourite. A major part of the conversation hovered around Seven Samurai. When the Japanese cinema legend was asked by Ray if he had any Samurai films in mind, Kurosawa said, “No, because there is such a dearth of horses now.”

The 3rd edition of IFFI was held in Delhi and was attended by the Andrzej Wazda. Satyajit Ray was commissioned by Filmfare to interview the Polish filmmaker on the occasion. As per Filmfare “Although Ray was the interviewer, Wazda occasionally came up with the question as the conversation veered round to technique. It was an exchange of ideas between two great directors.”

The meeting of Satyajit Ray and Marlon Brando happened in Delhi in 1967 when the latter had come to the capital city in the role of UNICEF’s ambassador. Amita Malik, the celebrated film critic of that era, had chaired a joint conversation between the two thespians for Doordarshan. Sadly, the priceless tapes of the conversation now exist no more. That classic conversation between two giants of cinema was lost forever,” were Amita Malik’s words in her autobiography.

In this priceless picture, you can see Satyajit Ray explaining a scene to Richard Attenborough during the shooting of 'Shatranj Ke Khiladi'. Attenborough played the role of General Outram in the film.

Filmmakers like Billy Wilder, John Boorman, Andrei Tarkowski, Michelangelo Antonioni along with Satyajit Ray were invited by Cannes officials in 1982 to mark 35th anniversary of the film festival. At the Cannes croisette, over cigarettes and coffee, the auteurs exchanged ideas. This was also the year when Mrinal Sen was part of the festival jury.

John Hurt was in Kolkata during the winter of 1987 and called up the legend as he casually wanted to meet him. In the evening the two caught up on the sets of La Nuit Bengali (a French film) at Tollygunge. On the left of the image, a very young Hugh Grant (the lead star of La Nuit Bengali) can be spotted.

Satyajit Ray traveled to LA after he received that news that Columbia Pictures was interested in making a film on his story, The Alien. Both Marlon Brando and Steve McQueen showed interest in being part of the film while Peter Sellers was especially excited about playing the role of the Indian businessman. The time when Ray landed in LA, Sellers was busy shooting for The Party but took time out to meet the maestro.

Not many know that Satyajit Ray’s Shakha Proshakha (1990) was produced by famous French actor Gerard Depardieu. Gerard was in Kolkata in 1989 to meet the director as part of pre-production on the film. He was rewarded an Oscar for “best actor” for his performance in the Cyrano de Bergerac movie in 1991.