Satyajit Ray (2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian filmmaker. Ray was born in the city of Calcutta into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature. 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 the Best Human Document at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing, and designed his own credit titles and publicity material. Ray received many major awards in his career, including 32 Indian National Film Awards, a number of awards at international film festivals and award ceremonies, and an honorary Academy Award in 1992. The Government of India honoured him with the Bharat Ratna in 1992.
