Ever wondered what the master storyteller, Satyajit Ray’s moments of trepidation looked like? Before calling “Action” or “Cut” on the sets of Pather Panchali, the maestro was often overcome by nervousness. Standing beside him was the one person who instinctively understood those silences. It was his closest friend, collaborator and art director, Bansi Chandragupta.When the words caught in Satyajit’s throat, Bansi would fill in for him and call “Action” and “Cut”, easing him through the uncertainty. Their camaraderie extended beyond the art and craft of filmmaking. On the sets of Apur Sansar (1959), Bansi was the only person close enough to casually light the director’s cigarette, no one else would have presumed to. Years later, that small gesture lingers as more than an anecdote. It became a metaphor for a friendship that kindled one of the greatest bodies of work in Indian cinema – one friend quite literally keeping the flame alive for the other.
Bansi Chandragupta with Satyajit Ray
| Photo Credit:
Saibal Maitra / Facebook
Professor Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay, former Head, Department of Film Studies at Jadavpur University, inherited many of these stories through friendships of his own. He heard them over years of adda with legendary film editor Dulal Dutta, who edited every Satyajit Ray film from Pather Panchali (1955) to Agantuk (1991), and cinematographer Soumendu Roy, who assisted Subrata Mitra during the making of Pather Panchali. When Sanjoy served as Director and CEO of the Roopkala Kendro (2005–08), Soumendu joined the institute as a guest faculty in the Department of Cinematography, where the two spent countless evenings in conversation. Lessons in ‘khistology’Professor Sanjoy smiles before calling it perhaps the most fascinating friendship of them all.Former Chief Minister of West Bengal Jyoti Basu and barrister and former Advocate General of West Bengal Snehangshu Acharya were almost the same age. After studying at Presidency College, Calcutta, they both went on to read law in England, where they qualified as barristers. Both would go on to become towering figures of the Left movement. Beyond politics lay a friendship sustained by irreverent humour, spirited adda and long evenings over Scotch.
