Bijoya Ray ('' née'' Das; 27 October 1917 – 2 June 2015) was the wife of the

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

Satyajit Ray. Their son

Sandip Ray Sandip Ray (born 8 September 1953) is an Indian film director and music director who mainly works in Bengali cinema. He is the only child of the famous Bengali director Satyajit Ray and Bijoya Ray. Life and education Sandip Ray was born in C ...

is also a film director. Bijoya and Satyajit were first cousins. Bijoya's father was the eldest half brother of Satyajit Ray's mother. After a long courtship, they were married in 1949. Bijoya Ray acted and sang playback song in a

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

feature film called ''Shesh Raksha'' in 1944 and also acted in the documentary ''Gaach'' (The Tree) by Catherine Berge in 1998. She died in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

on 2 June 2015, aged 97, after suffering from acute pneumonia.

Early life and education

Bijoya Ray was born as Bijoya Das to Charu Chandra Das, a barrister, and Madhuri Devi, younger sister of nationalist leader 'Deshbandhu' C R Das's wife

Basanti Devi Basanti Devi (23 March 1880 – 7 May 1974) was an Indian independence activist during the British rule in India. She was the wife of activist Chittaranjan Das. After Das' arrest in 1921 and death in 1925, she took an active part in various po ...

. She was the youngest of four daughters. One of her elder siblings Sati Devi was also a well-known singer and musical exponent who worked with

Uday Shankar Uday Shankar (8 December 1900 – 26 September 1977) was an Indian dancer and choreographer, best known for creating a fusion style of dance, adapting European theatrical techniques to Indian classical dance, imbued with elements of Indian cl ...

Almora Almora ( Kumaoni: ''Almāḍ'') is a municipal board and a cantonment town in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Almora district. Almora is located on a ridge at the southern edge of the Kumaon Hills of th ...

and at

Prithvi Theatre Prithvi Theatre is one of Mumbai's best known theatres. It was built by Shashi Kapoor and his wife Jennifer Kapoor in memory of Prithviraj Kapoor, Shashi's father, who had dreamt of having a "home" for his repertory theatre company, Prithvi Th ...

in Bombay and her daughter

Ruma Guha Thakurta Ruma Guha Thakurta (21 November 1934 – 3 June 2019) was an Indian actress and singer primarily associated with Bengali language films. She founded Calcutta Youth Choir in 1958. Early life Ruma Guha Thakurta was born on 3 November 1934 to ...

is a well-known personality in music and the acting world who was formerly married to the legendary singer Kishore Kumar. She had a versatile acting talent although she didn't work in many films. Her paternal aunt was Kanak Das(Biswas) a singer. Bijoya grew up in

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

and was educated in a convent. She had a gifted voice and her father wanted to send her to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

to be trained in soprano and western classical music. In 1931, when she was thirteen her father died and she and her mother and sisters had to come to Calcutta to her paternal uncle Prasant Das's house. It was here that she met her first cousin Satyajit. They were drawn to each other very soon and their common interests were Film and western classical music. She graduated from the

Jogamaya Devi College Jogamaya Devi College is one of the oldest and leading women's colleges in Kolkata, India. It shares the same building with Asutosh College (day college) and Syamaprasad College (evening college) and is named after the wife of Sir Asutosh Mu ...

, an affiliated undergraduate women's college of the historic

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, ...

, in

. After graduating, she worked as a teacher at Bethune School and Kamala Girls School, Kolkata and also as a clerk in a government office for a brief time. She left her job and went to Bombay to start a film career.

Career

She worked in a few films without success or satisfaction. In 1949 she married Satyajit Ray. Their only son Sandip was born in 1953. Bijoya Ray remained a constant inspiration and influence in Ray's life. After her husband died in 1992, she lived in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

with her son Sandip, daughter-in-law Lalita and grandson Saurodip. She wrote an autobiography "Amader Kotha (আমাদের কথা )" which was published by Ananda Publishers. She died on 2 June 2015 at the age of 97 after suffering from Pneumonia.

Filmography

* ''Shesh Raksha'' (1944) * ''Mashaal'' (1950) * '' Rajani'' (2009)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ray, Bijoya 2015 deaths Indian film actresses Actresses from Patna Actresses from Kolkata Brahmos Jogamaya Devi College alumni University of Calcutta alumni Satyajit Ray 20th-century Indian actresses Deaths from pneumonia in India 1917 births Actresses in Hindi cinema