During the course of a rich working life, Satyajit Ray, arguably India’s finest filmmaker, also manifested his genius for writing, music and the visual arts. In a career spanning almost half a century, Ray’s work – as a graphic artist, composer of music, set and costume designer, photographer and writer – revolutionized many areas of artistic life in India.

Ray’s study in his family home in Kolkata holds an extensive collection of documents and personal papers related to the many facets of his art. This paper archive, which is an evocative testimony to the artistic values he held in high regard, is in urgent need of preservation and conservation.

The collection comprises over 70,000 individual items that form one of the most complete records of any artistic life in modern India. It includes not only some 13,500 pages of draft and final screenplays and scripts, but also drafts of set designs, music notations, costume designs, prose writings in different languages, fiction, personal correspondence, scrapbooks, poster, advertising and calendar designs, book covers and illustrations, and typescripts. In addition, the archive holds drafts of interviews, lectures and radio talks, scrap books, photographs, phonograph jacket and sleeve notes, legal agreements, shooting plans, film and censor certificates, awards and citations.

The Society for the Preservation of Satyajit Ray Films (Ray Society) will sort, classify, index and catalogue this paper archive. Conservation of the materials will be undertaken under the supervision of Mr Michael J. Wheeler, Senior Conservator of Paper, Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Large parts of this collection have not been examined for decades. This project is thus expected to uncover ‘lost’ material.

While protecting the archive, the Ray Society will make digital copies of the papers, ensuring that previously inaccessible material is widely available to scholars, filmmakers and the interested public. This will also minimize the need to refer to the original and increasingly fragile paper archive. The project will thus address the twin problems of preservation and dissemination simultaneously. The project is also expected to culminate in an exhibition titled ‘The World of Satyajit Ray’.

December 1999