Cinema’s characteristic forte is its ability to capture and communicate the intimacies of the human mind.
Last, but not least – in fact, this is most important – you need a happy ending. However, if you can create tragic situations and jerk a few tears before the happy ending, it will work much better.
My cameraman and I devised a method, which we started using from my second film, which applies mainly to day scenes shot in the studio, where we used bounced light instead of direct light. We agreed with this thing of four or five shadows following the actors is dreadful.
At the age when Bengali youth almost inevitably writes poetry, I was listening to European classical music.
The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.
It was only after Pather Panchali had some success at home that I decided to do a second part. But I didn’t want to do the same kind of film again, so I made a musical.
Particularly in the final stages I always find that I’m rushed. It’s dangerous when you’re rushed in the editing stage, most of my early films are flawed in the cutting.
The only solutions that are ever worth anything are the solutions that people find themselves.
If the theme is simple, you can include a hundred details that create the illusion of actuality better.
When I write an original story I write about people I know first-hand and situations I’m familiar with. I don’t write stories about the nineteenth century.