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Satyajit Ray Society |
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The background and origins of the Society for the Preservation of the Satyajit Ray Films, better known as the Satyajit Ray Society, go back to March 30, 1992. The world watched a frail Satyajit Ray speak clearly and firmly with wry humuor from his intensive care unit hospital bed in Kolkata. It was the 64th annual Academy Awards night at the Dorothy Chandler Auditorium in Los Angeles where Ray was honoured with a lifetime achievement Special Oscar. Audrey Hepburn emceed the event. Behind the scenes, Daniel Taradash, a past president of the Academy and a distinguished screenwriter, worked hard to win unanimous approval of all 36 Governors of the Academy's Board for Ray's Special Oscar. Both Hepburn and Taradash had become acutely aware of the deteriorated condition of the original negatives of the Ray films. They vowed to do something about it. |
The Academy's Grants Committee, chaired by Taradash, gave a modest grant to Dilip K. Basu, Director of the Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection (Satyajit Ray FASC), and the one entrusted by the Academy to take Ray's Oscar to Calcutta two weeks before Oscar night to film Ray's acceptance speech. The grant enabled Basu to accompany David Shepard, a pioneer in film preservation, to India to examine the original Ray film negatives and file a technical report. Shepard examined eighteen of Ray's 36 films and ruefully commented in his report: “The work of no other world class filmmaker hangs on such a thin thread as Satyajit Ray's.”
The Shepard report drew the attention of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF). A meeting was convened at the RGF initiative in May 1993 where the idea of forming an organization to restore and preserve the luminous legacies of Satyajit Ray was born. RGF offered a “seed” grant with which the Satyajit Ray Society began its journey. On September 7, 1993 the first meeting of the Society was held at the RGF. Somnath Chatterjee (now Speaker of the Indian Lok Sabha) was elected founding President, Mrs. Bijoya Ray (Ray's widow) was named the first and till now the only Patron. Bhaskar Ghosh was nominated Member-Secretary. Dilip K.Basu was named the Society's International Coordinator. Sandip Ray (Ray's son and himself a noted filmmaker) took over as Member-Secretary soon thereafter.
The founding trustees of the Satyajit Ray Society included, besides Chatterjee, Ghosh, Basu and Sandip Ray, Amitabha Bachchan, Nirmalya Acharya, Dr. Saroj Ghosh, R.P. Goenka, Ismail Merchant, Siddhartha Shankar Ray, P.C. Sen and Pulok Chatterji. |
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On December 14, 1993, the Society was formally registered as The Society for the Preservation of Satyajit Ray Films in Kolkata under the Registration of Societies West Bengal Act XXVI of 1961 (No. S/75284 of 1993-94). Soon it came to be known simply as the Satyajit Ray Society. The Society's first grant from the RGF was followed by a grant from UNICEF which enabled the Federation International Archives of Films (FIAF) in Brussels, Belgium to undertake a world-wide search of the surviving Ray film elements.
Restoration began at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Archives (AMPASA) in full earnest. Merchant Ivory Productions (MIP) and Ismail Merchant came forward with their interest in and support for restoration and re-releasing Ray film classics in North America. Michael Friend, AMPASA's the then director, was in charge. During the first phase, the work of restoration received a severe jolt with the loss of six Ray original negatives at the Henderson Laboratory in London in 1994 in a tragic film fire.
These were taken there by MIP. Cooperation of the National Film Archives of India in Pune was crucial for the successful restoration of the nine films during 1994-96. Restoration has now entered a second phase under the leadership of Michael Pogorzelski, the new director of AMPASA, and Joseph Lindner, the coordinator of Ray restorations at AMPASA. To date, eight additional films have been restored. |
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Satyajit Ray not only left behind a legacy of 36 films which are regarded as great and near-great all-time classics; he left behind a nearly 70,000 document-strong paper archives, each page of which shows the mark of his multifaceted genius. These include his graphics, posters, illustrations, book covers, literary manuscripts, screenplays, film-related art works, music notations , books by him and on him. Bearing the telltale marks of Kolkata's heat and humidity, this massive paper archives has been in varying stages of deterioration and discoloration.
The Satyajit Ray Society received two major grants from the Ford Foundation. These two grants as well as another from India Arts Foundation have enormously helped the restoration of the Ray paper archives. With the expert advice from Mike Wheeler of the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, the work of paper restoration continues. The work is done at the Ray Family home by the Ray Society's highly skilled staff. |
This year (2006), the Society has entered a new phase: Sri Somnath Chatterjee, who has generously given his time and astute leadership to the Society for over a decade, decided to step down due to the demands of his new responsibilities as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. The Society is fortunate to have as Mr. Chatterjee's successor Sri D.N. Ghosh, a former Union Government Secretary and Chairman of the State Bank of India. Sri Ghosh is currently associated with a number of leading business houses. Sri Deepak Mukerjee, former Managing Director of the IDBI bank, is now the new Treasurer succeeding the late Samir Ghosh. Sri Sandip Ray continues as Member-Secretary. Sri Prododh Maitra has passed away, and Sri Dilip K. Basu has resigned. The Governing Body of the Society comprises, in addition to Ghosh, Mukherjee and Ray, Smt Purnima Dutta, Smt Lolita Ray, Dr. Saroj Ghosh, Sri Sujit Poddar and Sri P.P. Ray.
Sri D.N. Ghosh's first initiative has been basic and elementary: preparation of a professional inventory of all the materials in the Ray paper archives with a view to completing a database which will be ultimately put on the internet. The second initiative concerns the Ray Society website. Its first phase is now complete.
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The new President has brought with him a number of corporate donors who have most generously provided the Society with funds for its current operations. These include Tata Tea Ltd., Peerless General Finance Investment Company Ltd., Housing Development and Finance Corporation (HDFC) Ltd., and Sundaram Finance Ltd.
The first CEO of the Society was Sri Bidyut Sarkar in New Delhi. Since the Society decided to maintain its sole office in Kolkata, Bidyut Sarkar was replaced by Sri Aditi Nath Sarkar; the latter left the Society in 2002. Sm. Kurchi Dasgupta replaced him. In April 2006, Sri Arup K. De, Editor of a community newspaper who specializes on Satyajit Ray, has taken over as the new CEO. |
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