My Adventures with Satyajit Ray

‘Sir, I would like you to make a film in Hindi because I am in the Hindi film industry, or in English, or if not, then in Bengali.’ When Suresh Jindal said these words to Satyajit Ray in 1974, he was a rookie producer with a single film – albeit the sleeper hit of the year, Rajnigandha – to his credit. Ray was an icon, among the greatest film-makers in the world. Yet, Ray responded: ‘Actually, I have been thinking of doing a film in Hindi’, thus paving the way for a remarkable adventure. Shatranj Ke Khilari is Satyajit Ray’s only full-length feature film in Hindi/Urdu and his most expensive film. A period piece set in nineteenth-century Lucknow, it employed lavish set designs and stars of both Hindi and Hollywood cinema. Quoting extensively from Ray’s fascinating unpublished letters to Jindal, this book evokes the passion, historical research and trademark devotion to detail that Ray brought to every aspect of film production, as also the many epiphanies and pitfalls that accompany all creative collaborations. Coinciding with the fortieth anniversary of the film’s release, My Adventures with Satyajit Ray is a fitting tribute to a classic of Indian cinema and its immortal maker. Book jacket.