Rare photos of the legendary Satyajit Ray on display

Old and rare photographs of the iconic auteur, music composer and writer Satyajit Ray are now on display at an exhibition being held in Dehradun. A group dedicated to cinema, journalism and literature is behind the exhibition where around 70 rare photographs of the maestro taken at different times of his around four decade-long movie-making career besides some of his works and awards are on display, said Manoj Panjani, the founder of the group. He , further ,informed that as Ray had started his career as a graphic illustrator in an advertisement agency a rare photograph of his advertisement designed for D.J Keymer is also on display at the exhibition.

“I have been collecting photos of Satyajit Ray from the year 1992. The photos collected over 26 years give a glimpse of some of the very special moments of the legend’s life.  Starting from his childhood, the exhibition covers the evolution of his life and career from a graphic illustrator to a world-renowned filmmaker to a music composer to a writer. Besides, some rare photographs of some of his companions like editor Dulal Dutta who clung to him till the legend died are also there in the exhibition,” Panjani said.                             

He, further, informed that the exhibition has rare photos of the scripts made by Satyajit Ray for a Hollywood film about an alien which did not get produced. “I came across a magazine which had 13 photos of the legend. I checked my collection and found that I have more of his photos-some of them rare-in my collection than the magazine contains. Thereafter, the idea of doing an exhibition of my collection came to my mind,” Panjani added.

Talking about his future plan, he said, “There are many artists from Uttarakhand who have left a profound imprint on the realm of cinema, taking the Indian cinema to the centre stage of the global cinema. I have around 100 photos of these artists. We are planning to do the next exhibition on them. Perhaps it would take two months to arrange the photos in the form of an exhibition.”