Biografía

Japanese film-maker Akira Kurosawa and Ray were acquainted. Kurosawa said of Ray's work, "To have not seen the films of Ray is to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun.".

The Legion of Honor is the most prestigious award in France and presented to those having exhibited outstanding lifetime achievement in their chosen field of work. Instead of inviting him over to France for the ceremony, then French president François Mitterrand personally went to Ray's doorstep in Calcutta to present him with the honor.

In 1967, he wrote a script for a movie entitled "The Alien". Columbia Pictures was in talks to produce it. Peter Sellers and Marlon Brando were supposed to be up for the leading roles. However, Ray was surprised to find that the script he had cowritten had already been copyrighted and the fee appropriated. Brando dropped out of the project and, though an attempt was made to bring James Coburn in to replace him, Ray was disillusioned, had enough of Hollywood machinations and returned to Calcutta. Columbia was interested in reviving the project in the 1970s and 1980s but nothing came of it. When E.T. el extraterrestre (1982) was released in 1982, many saw striking similarities in the film to Ray's earlier script. Ray himself believed that Steven Spielberg's movie "would not have been possible without my script of 'The Alien' being available throughout America in mimeographed copies." Spielberg denied this by saying, "I was a kid in high school when this script was circulating in Hollywood".

He won a special life-time achievement award at the 1992 Acadamy Awards. He's the second Indian to have won an Oscar. The first was Bhanu Athaiya in 1983.

He was an enormous man (about 6' 5" and well over two hundred pounds), having stood nearly a foot taller than the average Indian of his generation.