Site Map | About Us | Contact
 
Home About Ray Biography Filmography Filmmaking Books and Videos Links
About Ray
Introduction
Apu Trilogy
Ray on Ray
Critics on Ray
Regular Cast & Crew
Sandip Ray
Sharmila Tagore
Soumitra Chatterjee
Subrata Mitra
Awards
Subrata Mitra, Cinematographer
One of the leading cinematographers of the Indian cinema, Subrata Mitra began his career as a still photographer. His first assignment as a cinematographer, was with Satyajit Ray for Pather Panchali. Later, he also worked for other directors, including James Ivory.

Rejecting the methods of studio lighting then accepted world-over, Ray and Mitra evolved the "bounce lighting", which we take for granted today. Ray described it in an article – "Subroto (Subrata as pronounced in Bengali), my cameraman, has evolved, elaborated and perfected a system of diffused lighting whereby natural daylight can be simulated to a remarkable degree. This results in a photographic style, which is truthful, unobtrusive and modern. I have no doubt that for films in the realistic genre, this is a most admirable system."

Mitra was also responsible for operating the camera until Charulata when Ray himself began operating the camera. Soon, they parted company and Mitra’s assistant Soumendu Roy took over the lighting. The last film Mitra photographed for Ray was Nayak (The Hero, 1966).
Select Filmography
Awards
  • 1985 National Award for cinematography for New Delhi Times
  • 1992 Eastman Kodak Lifetime Achievement for Excellence in Cinematography
Links
 Subrata Mitra
Subrata Mitra
Site Map | About Us | Contact ©1999-2003 SatyajitRay.org. Acknowledgements & Legal | Privacy