Unable to travel, the Academy sent a camera crew and the Oscar trophy to Kolkata, recording his acceptance speech for broadcast at the Academy Awards.
The auteur said, “Well, it’s an extraordinary experience for me to be here tonight to receive this magnificent award; certainly the best achievement of my movie-making career. When I was a small, small school boy, I was terribly interested in the cinema. Became a film fan, wrote to Deanna Durbin. Got a reply, was delighted. Wrote to Ginger Rogers, didn’t get a reply. Then, of course, I got interested in the cinema as an art form, and I wrote a twelve-page letter to Billy Wilder after seeing Double Indemnity. He didn’t reply either. Well, there you are.”
He continued, “I have learned everything I’ve learned about the craft of cinema from the making of American films. I’ve been watching American films very carefully over the years, and I loved them for what they entertain, and then later loved them for what they taught. So, I express my gratitude to the American cinema, to the motion picture association who have given me this award and has made me feel so proud. Thank you very, very much.”
Legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa once said, “Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon.”
Actors, too, have found inspiration in his work. Daniel Day-Lewis has cited Ray as one of the filmmakers he admires deeply, while Keanu Reeves stated that his only understanding of India in his younger days was through Ray’s films.
Satyajit Ray passed away on April 23, 1992, just weeks after receiving the Oscar, leaving behind a body of work that is still being studied today.
