Bijoya Ray

Bijoya Ray (27 October 1917 – 2 June 2015)[1] was the wife of the Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Their son Sandip Ray is also a film director. Bijoya and Satyajit were first cousins.[2] After a long courtship, they were married in 1949.[3] Bijoya Ray acted and sang playback song in a Bengali feature film called Shesh Raksha in 1944 and also acted in the documentary Gaach (The Tree) by Catherine Berge in 1998. She died in Kolkata on 2 June 2015, aged 97, after suffering from acute pneumonia.[4]

Bijoya Ray
Born
Bijoya Das (দাশ)

(1917-10-27)27 October 1917
Died2 June 2015(2015-06-02) (aged 97)
Kolkata, West Bengal
NationalityIndian
Spouse(s)Satyajit Ray
ChildrenSandip Ray

Early life and education

Bijoya Ray was born as Bijoya Das to Charu Chandra Das, a barrister and Madhuri Devi, younger sister of nationalist leader 'Deshbandhu' C R Das's wife Basanti Devi. She was the youngest of four daughters. One of her elder siblings Sati Devi was also a well known singer and musical exponent who worked with Uday Shankar in Almora and at Prithvi Theatre in Bombay and her daughter Ruma Guha Thakurta is a well-known personality in music and acting world who was formerly married to the legendary singer Kishore Kumar. She had a versatile acting talent although she didn't work in many films. Her paternal aunt was Kanak Das(Biswas) a famous singer of the time.[5]

Bijoya grew up in Patna and was educated in a convent. She had a gifted voice and her father wanted to send her to Paris to be trained in soprano and western classical music. In 1931, when she was thirteen her father died and she along with her mother and sisters had to come to Calcutta to her paternal uncle Prasant Das's house. It was here that she met her first cousin Satyajit. They were drawn to each other very soon and their common interests were Film and western classical music. She graduated from the Jogamaya Devi College, an affiliated undergraduate women's college of the historic University of Calcutta, in Kolkata.[6] After graduating, she worked as a teacher at Bethune School and Kamala Girls School, Kolkata and also as a clerk in a government office for a brief time. She left her job and went to Bombay to start a film career.[7]

Career

She worked in a few films without success or satisfaction. In 1949 she married Satyajit Ray and got settled. Their only son Sandip was born in 1953.[3] Bijoya Ray remained a constant inspiration and influence in Ray's life. After her husband's death in 1992, she lived in Calcutta with her son Sandip, daughter-in-law Lalita and grandson Saurodip. She wrote an autobiography "Amader kotha (আমাদের কথা ISBN 81-7756-687-3)" which is published by Ananda Publishers. She died on 2 June 2015 aged 97 after suffering from Pneumonia.

Filmography
  • Shesh Raksha (1944)
  • Mashaal (1950)
  • Rajani

References
  1. "Satyajit Ray's wife Bijoya Ray passes away". The Times of India. 2 June 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  2. Satyajit Ray (15 January 1983). Phatik Chand. Orient Paperbacks. pp. 112–. ISBN 978-81-222-0420-9. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
  3. Satyajit Ray; Bert Cardullo (1 March 2007). Satyajit Ray: Interviews. Univ. Press of Mississippi. pp. 18–. ISBN 978-1-57806-937-8. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
  4. "Satyajit Ray's Wife Bijoya Ray passes away". Archived from the original on 2 June 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  5. [Book - Manik and I (Amader Katha) Author Bijoya Ray]
  6. History of the College
  7. [Book - Amader Katha(Manik and I)Author Bijoya Ray}
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