Ray Never Distinguished Between Parallel and Mainstream Cinema: Soumitra

RBN Web Desk: Veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee has said that auteur Satyajit Ray never distinguished between parallel and mainstream cinema. The 84-year old actor had worked with Ray in 14 films. He debuted with Ray’s ‘Apur Sansar’ in 1959.

Speaking to the media recently, Soumitra recalled, Ray always said that there could be only good and bad films. He never believed in categorising a film. It’s the output that counts, and whether the film was liked or rejected by the audience, Soumitra recalled.

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The Dadasaheb Phalke Award winning actor said that a good script and a realistic approach to the story are the two most important factors he considers before signing a film. The director too must be sincere in his/her work. However, good roles that were easy to come by earlier, have decreased over the years. Filmmakers today can hardly give him the opportunity that Ray and Tapan Sinha offered. Directors like Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak ushered in a movement in Bengali and Indian cinema that no director of recent times can match, Soumitra said.