Roy used Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Jana Gana Mana’ before it became our National Anthem in Hamrahi, his first directorial venture in hindi cinema. The 3.2-minute version was composed by RC Boral and rendered by a chorus.
KRC Times Tell Tale Teaser Team
On his birthday 12 July, a little peek into life of Bimal Roy the legendary director who still lives amongst us through his pictures. Realistic films like ‘Do Bigha Zamin’, ‘Parineeta’, ‘Biraj Bahu’, ‘Devdas’, ‘Madhumati’, ‘Sujata’ and ‘Bandini’ followed, making him an awe-inspiring name among the film fraternity.
His film career began as a camera assistant with New Theatres Pvt. Ltd. Seeing his urge for direction, B. N. Sircar gave him permission to make film but on one condition that Roy could only use leftover reel from other films. Roy actually took up the challenge and made the film with only cut pieces of leftover reel. The year was 1944 and the film was Udayer Pathe.
Roy used Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Jana Gana Mana’ before it became our National Anthem in Hamrahi, his first directorial venture in hindi cinema. The 3.2-minute version was composed by RC Boral and rendered by a chorus.
His film Madhumati set a record by winning nine Filmfare Awards in 1958, a record that stood for the next 37 years until 1996, when it was broken by Aditya Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) with ten. Madhumati is the first Indian film to be launched internationally.
Roy gave Indian Cinema many great filmmakers and writers such as Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar, Nabendu Ghosh, Salil Chowdhury and Basu Bhattacharya.
In 1959, he was a member of the jury at the 1st Moscow International Film Festival.
A postage stamp, bearing his face, was released by India Post to honour him on January 8, 2007.
