An online film festival showcases a docu on Satyajit Ray to kick-start his birth centenary celebrations

To kick-start the birth centenary celebrations of the filmmaker extraordinaire, Satyajit Ray, Iskule Bioscope, which is a film festival held on the premises of various city schools, premiered the first crowd-sourced documentary film, Maharaja Shotoborshe Tomare Selam, on their social media account on May 2. Due to the nationwide lockdown, the film festival has moved to the digital space.During the online event, artistes from Tollywood like Siddhartha Chatterjee, who played Topse in two of Ray’s Feluda flicks, National Award-winning documentary filmmaker Sagnik Chatterjee, National Award-winning editor Saikat Shekhar Ray and professor of film studies from a city-based college, Soumya Subhra Sas were in participation from their homes. The entire session was moderated by documentary filmmaker Subha Das Mollick. Maharaja Shotoborshe Tomare Selam is a compilation of snippets, anecdotes and memories in connection with Satyajit Ray and his iconic creations. Kaushik Chakraborty, associated with the event, said, "It was in the beginning of April itself that we had sent a questionnaire to several Satyajit Ray fans across the world. It was mostly sent through Facebook messenger, WhatsApp and e-mail services. All the ardent fans reciprocated with interesting audio and video bytes. It was a thrilling experience to listen and compiling those into a movie. Maharaja Shotoborshe Tomare Selam is conceived, planned and directed by Subha Das Mollick.”