KOLKATA: A collection of stills of the 1974 Satyajit Ray film 'Sonar Kella', not in public domain, would be published in the autumnal issue of the children's Bengali magazine Sandesh this month.
The maestro's director son Sandip Ray told PTI on Wednesday the stills were taken in 1973 during the outdoor shooting of Sonar Kella, the first film on the iconic fictional sleuth Feluda created by the film maker-writer- editor and illustrator himself.
"I can't divulge details about the stills but yes these were taken during shoots of the film in 1973 in Rajasthan. I had kept these stills, clicked by me and we will publish 10-12 such treasures in black and white, preserved in all these years in the Sandesh pujo sankhya (special edition of a magazine published on the occasion of Durga puja)," Sandip said.
Sandip now helms the magazine founded in 1913 by writer Upendra Kishore Ray, taken to new height by his gifted son writer-limerick writer Sukumar Ray till his death in 1925 and revived by Sukumar's son Satyajit in 1961 with two other writers late Lila Majumder and Nalini Das on board.
"In the run-up to the birth centenary year of Satyajit Ray, we had long been planning to gift something new to the readers a large number of them belonging to young generation. And what better way than to bring out hitherto unseen footage of stills of one of the most popular films of father," he said.
Sandip recalled many of these stills features legendary actor Soumitra Chatterjee who immortalised the role of the popular iconic sleuth Feluda in the first two films.
"Recently before he fell sick I had interviewed Soumitra Kaku for a documentary on his life and career. He recalled fondly the different moments during the shoot of Sonar Kella. Also shared anecdotes about shootings in thirteen other films of father. They had a deep bonding," Sandip said.