Bimal Roy was the only man to make a documentary on the Bengal famine. It was difficult for him to shoot it because it was so gruesome. He also made a documentary on Swami Vivekanand and Gautam Buddha called Life and Message of Swami Vivekananda and Gautama the Buddha respectively.
He wanted to make a film with the Kumbh Mela as backdrop, and shoot the mela live. It was a complicated story. But before he could start with the film, he died of cancer. He used to be a chain smoker.
Bimal Roy always worked with actors on two-film contracts. With Nutan, he made Bandini and Sujata; Vijayantimala did Madhumati and Devdas; Sadhna did Parakh and Prem Patra; Motilal did Parakh and Devdas; Balraj Sahni did Do Bigha Zameen and Kabuliwala.
He gave a break to many directors, who were working with him, like Tapan Sinha, Shubhendu Roy, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Rithwik Ghatak, Gulzar, Basu Bhattacharya and Asit Sen.
When Bimal Roy came to Mumbai, he brought his Bengali friends with him. We had addas (prolonged chatting sessions) at our house, but as he became more known to people, he became more distant. Because in Calcutta, he had his big gang of classmates but here he had few friends. Mumbai life is very different. Here, we stayed in closed doors whereas there, our house was always open.
He was very simple person and preferred to dress in dhoti-kurta. Once, he took us out for dinner to a posh hotel called Natraj Hotel. He was not allowed in because he was wearing dhoti-kurta. The manager later realised who he was and offered him a dinner jacket. But my father refused.
He was very simple. Even when he went to Moscow, he would not let go of his dhoti-kurta, despite the cold.
Also read: An eternal love story: Devdas
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