Martin Scorcese To Christopher Nolan, 11 Greatest Filmmakers Who Were Inspired By Satyajit Ray

Anyone who touches upon the art of Satyajit Ray often faces dim criticism if not harsh. It's like cooking a dish from your mom's recipe. You will never be able to match up to the original taste.

That's what happened with Netflix anthology series Ray.

AFP

The Satyajit Ray fans, who have read these stories in the past, are losing sweat over the modern and dark twist given to his stories, which has once again raised questions on artistic morality. Such is the magic of the legendary documentary filmmaker, director, author, essayist, scriptwriter, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher and music composer Satyajit Ray.

Not only in India, but he also has an ardent fan following across the globe. Anyone who has read or watched his work is in awe of him. You probably didn't know but some of the biggest and greatest Hollywood filmmakers also look up to Ray.

Ray who won 36 Indian National Film Awards, a Golden Lion, a Golden Bear and 2 Silver Bears received an Honorary Oscar in 1992.

1. Christopher Nolan

AFP

After watching Ray's Pather Panchali, Christopher Nolan was keen on learning more about Indian cinema.

"I have had the pleasure of watching Mr Ray's 'Pather Panchali' recently, which I hadn't seen before. I think it is one of the best films ever made. It is an extraordinary piece of work. I am interested in learning more about Indian film industry and that is the reason why I came," Nolan told PTI on his trip to India in 2018.

2. Martin Scorcese

AFP

Hollywood filmmaker Martin Scorsese needs no introduction. The multiple Oscar winner, who liked Anurag Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur and Dev D, is a big fan of Indian legends Satyajit Ray and dancer Uday Shankar for Kalpana 1948.

"I'm totally in awe of the movie Kalpana. It¡¯s a genuine dance film. In other words, a film which is not just about dance, but there is dance in movement, composition and energy... I¡®m also a big fan of Satyajit Ray¡¯s body of work. The few interactions I had with Ray are memories I treasure," he told HT City.

In an article for Indian Express, he wrote that his filmmaking took his breath away.

"We all need to see the films of Satyajit Ray and re-see them, again and again. Taken all together, they¡¯re one of our greatest treasures."

"Ray¡¯s magic, the simple poetry of his images and their emotional impact, will always stay with me," he had told The Washington Post.

Fun Fact: Did you know it was Scorsese who proposed Ray's name for Honorary Oscar and swiftly got the backing of Hollywood legendary filmmakers.

3. Keanu Reeves

Twitter

Keanu Reeves is a big fan of Ray's films and he had got to know India only through his work.

"My only understanding of India (in his younger days) was through the Satyajit Ray films I watched in film festival after film festival. They are incredible. That is how I perceive India ¡ª real, warm and unaffected," he was quoted as saying ANI.

4. Julia Roberts

AFP

Julia Roberts believes that no one can match up to Ray's excellence. "Not even in Hollywood do we have a director of Ray¡¯s caliber today. When special effects and technical superiority were unknown to the cinema, he created masterpieces in the simplest form. I still wonder how fabulously he used Madhabi Mukherjee¡¯s eyes in mid and tight close-ups in Charulata," she was quoted as saying by HT.

5. Meryl Streep

AFP

Meryl Streep was in awe of how Ray handled women in each of his films. She said it was a lesson for any director in the world. "His handling of actress Madhabi Mukherjee in Charulata shows how much respect and dignity Ray gave to his actresses. That itself is the hallmark of a true director. I have not an iota of doubt that if Ray worked in Hollywood, he would have proved a tough competition for the likes of Sir David Lean, Francis Ford Coppola and Sir Alan Parker," she was quoted as saying.

6. Audrey Hepburn

AFP

Audrey Hepburn couldn't stop praising Ray when she presented the Lifetime Achievement Oscar to Ray in 1991 at the 64th Academy Awards in Hollywood.

"The Academy Board of Governors has voted to award an Honorary Oscar to the great Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Academy recognizes Mr Ray¡¯s rare mastery of the arts of motion pictures and his profound humanism which has had an indelible influence on filmmakers and audiences throughout the world¡­"

Fun Fact: Did you know Ray was supposed to make an English film starring Marlon Brando, Shashi Kapoor and Audrey Hepburn. The film for Twentieth Century Fox, however, never went on the floors.

7. Wes Anderson

AFP

For Wes Anderson, Ray was his role model.

"I started to go [to India] because I wanted to work there. Satyajit Ray¡¯s films are part of what drew me to India, and I¡¯ve seen and know a lot of his work¡­ For me, Ray was one of the ideal role models for the kind of director I would like to be. He¡¯s somebody who wrote his own scripts. He often adapted books, but he also created his own material. He was regional and had his own area in West Bengal. He had his own sources of money. He had a little family operation to make his movies, and he made a lot of movies. And they¡¯re often very personal¡­ Somewhere along the way, he started composing the scores for his movies, which I recently heard was for expediency, because he felt like he could turn them around a lot faster than what he was getting from the people he was working with," he was quoted as saying.

Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited was inspired by Satyajit Ray. The film about three American brothers also had soundtracks composed by Ray. Even the sequences in Indian train were borrowed from Ray, the ones that he used in his 1966 film Nayak.

8. Francis Ford Coppola

AFP

The man behind the iconic Godfather series remembers how Ray praised him for his films and how he remembers India because of Ray's works. Devi is his favourite Ray film, he says.

"Whenever someone speaks from Kolkata, I remember Satyajit Ray's call, praising me for 'Godfather I'. He complimented me particularly for my discovery, Al Pacino, whom he considered the best actor of the 1970s. According to him, Marlon Brando was untouchable in 'Godfather'. We know of Indian cinema through Ray's works and, to me, his best is ¡®Devi', a cinematic milestone," he said.

9. George Lucas

AFP

Best known for creating Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, George Lucas told TOI, "When I went to college we studied the Satyajit Ray period of Indian cinema, and was very important to us as film students."

10. Akira Kurosawa

AFP

In 1975, the legendary Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa had said about Ray, "The quiet but deep observation, understanding and love of the human race, which are characteristic of all his films, have impressed me greatly. ¡­ I feel that he is a ¡°giant¡± of the movie industry. Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon. I can never forget the excitement in my mind after seeing it (Pather Panchali). It is the kind of cinema that flows with the serenity and nobility of a big river. People are born, live out their lives, and then accept their deaths. Without the least effort and without any sudden jerks, Ray paints his picture, but its effect on the audience is to stir up deep passions. How does he achieve this? There is nothing irrelevant or haphazard in his cinematographic technique. In that lies the secret of its excellence."

11. Elia Kazan

AFP

The American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, who The New York Times described as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history" has this to say about Satyajit Ray:

"I have admired his films for many years and for me he is the filmic voice of India, speaking for the people of all classes of the country¡­He is the most sensitive and eloquent artist and it can truly be said in his case that when we honor him we are honoring ourselves."