Next year, master director Bimal Roy would have turned 100. Over a cup of tea, Bimalda's daughter Rinki Bhattacharya talked about her father as a director, a man and a spotter of talent. Here's what she had to say to Patcy N:
Before my father became a cinematographer, he was a publicity photographer at New Theatres Pvt Ltd in Calcutta. It was a known studio at the time, like Bombay Talkies and Prabhat Studios in Mumbai. He worked with (actor-filmmaker) PC Barua. His work was so well appreciated that the heroines would line up to be photographed by him. He used to make women look really nice. Kanan Devi once told me, 'your father made me look like a goddess.'
His story was very close to Do Bigha Zameen. After my grandfather's death, my father's relatives said the land didn't belong to him, as his father had a lot of debt. That's why the first half of the film is very close to his life.
Our ancestral house is still in Dhaka in Bangladesh. When he came to Calculta, he stayed with his brother. This brother worked with Rabindranath Tagore, and had given my father a camera. They began their struggle from a rented house.
Also read: The perceptive camera of Bimal Roy
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