Thursday,
August
24,
2006
London/Kolkata
(UNI):
The
world
of
Satyajit
Ray
is
just
a
click
away,
while
a
Ray
Museum
is
on
the
anvil,
as
envisaged
by
his
son
Sandip
Ray.
Talking
to
UNI,
Sandip
Ray
said,
"We
are
launching
the
website
www.worldofray.com
on
August
26
co-inciding
with
the
51st
anniversary
of
the
maestro's
maiden
film
'Pather
Panchali'.
It
will
allow
the
millions
of
Ray
enthusiasts
to
get
to
know
my
father
better."
"The
portal
will
be
interactive
and
informative,
while
keeping
the
entertainment
content
in
mind.
We
are
hosting
several
of
Ray's
pictures,
digitised
versions
of
his
manuscripts,
sketches
and
documents
that
will
give
the
website
a
real
life
feel," said
Sandip
Ray,
who
is
the
member
secretary
of
Ray
Society.
The
250
page
website,
that
will
be
hosted
by
Society
for
the
Preservation
of
the
Satyajit
Ray
Films,
is
an
exhaustive
detail
on
the
multi-faceted
maestro.
It
deals
with
every
aspect
of
Ray's
life
and
creation
starting
from
some
audio
and
video
clips
of
his
films
and
music,
to
the
details
of
preserving
his
manuscripts,
book-jackets
which
he
had
designed
and
also
his
advertisement
stuff.
"The
portal
will
have
a
downloadable
image
at
some
stage
and
there
will
also
be
an
e-shop
from
where
Ray
goodies
can
be
brought
at
a
price," Ray
said.
He
said
the
most
difficult
part
of
the
process
was
to
collect
everything
from
various
sources
and
then
get
them
to
be
restored.
"But
a
major
part
of
the
job
have
been
completed.
Now
the
cataloging
of
the
books
are
going
on,"
he
added.
"The
background
and
origins
of
the
Society
for
the
Preservation
of
the
Satyajit
Ray
Films,
better
known
as
the
Satyajit
Ray
Society
go
back
to
March
30,
1992,"
Sandip
remembers.
The
world
watched
a
frail
Satyajit
Ray
speak
clearly
and
firmly
with
wry
humour
from
his
intensive
care
unit
hospital
bed
in
Kolkata.
It
was
the
64th
Annual
Academy
Awards
night
at
the
Dorothy
Chandler
Auditorium
in
Los
Angles
where
Ray
was
honoured
with
a
lifetime
achievement
Special
Oscar.
Audrey
Hepburn
emceed
the
event.
The
Academy's
Grants
Committee,
chaired
by
Daniel
Taradash,
gave
a
modest
grant
to
Dilip
Kr
Basu,
Director
of
Satyajit
Ray
Film
and
Study
Collection.
It
enabled
Basu
to
accompany
David
Shepherd,
a
pioneer
in
film
preservation,
to
India
to
examine
the
original
Ray
film
negatives
and
file
a
technical
report.
Shepherd
wrote
in
his
report,
"The
work
of
no
other
world
class
filmmaker
hangs
on
such
a
thin
thread
as
Satyajit
Ray's."
The
report
drew
attention
of
Rajiv
Gandhi
Foundation
and
on
its
initiative
on
May
1993
the
idea
of
forming
an
organisation
to
restore
and
preserve
the
luminous
legacies
of
Ray
was
born,
Sandip
said.
The
website
include
hundreds
of
photographs,
including
rare
ones
taken
by
Ray
himself,
as
well
as
numerous
write-ups---on
his
stint
as
film
director,
fiction
writer,
calligraphist,
designer
and
copy
artist.
Among
the
photographs
are
one
shot
by
him
of
Italian
film
director
Michelangelo
Antoninio
and
Japanese
director
Akira
Kurosawa
on
elephant
back
in
Agra
and
another
of
the
three
together
at
the
Taj
Mahal,
dating
back
to
more
than
three
decades
ago,
Arup
Dey,
CEO
of
Ray
Society
told
UNI.The
Ray
society
has
been
working
on
preservation
of
Ray
artifacts
for
the
last
decade
and
more
than
70,000
of
his
manuscripts,
scripts,
scrapbooks,
cover
designs
and
book
illustrations
have
been
restored
under
the
able
supervision
of
Mike
Wheeler,
renowned
preservator
of
Victoria
Albert
Museum
of
the
UK.
The
society
has
also
restored
16
of
the
36
Ray
classics
with
the
help
of
the
Academy.
The
Ray
admirers
will
have
a
glimpse
of
all
the
restored
legacy
of
the
maestro
in
the
portal,
Dey
said.
Sandip
Ray
further
told
UNI
that
he
has
plans
of
making
a
Museum
on
Satyajit
Ray
that
will
have
collection
of
his
photograps
and
all
of
his
legacy
and
also
a
study
centre
and
a
film
screening
centre.
"But
that
is
a
vision
that
will
take
time
to
be
in
full
flight.
However
work
is
on,"
he
added.Sandip
also
added
that
the
portal
that
will
be
launched
has
a
fascinating
section
that
has
Ray's
comments
on
Pandit
Ravi
Shankar
and
his
script
of
his
unmade
film
'The
Alien' along
with
two
of
his
short
stories
that
have
been
put
up
for
reading.