Biography of Bimal Roy

(July 12, 1909 - January 7, 1966)

Bimal Roy was one of the greatest ever directors of Indian cinema. In his films we see a romantic idealist to whom any form of exploitation social, religious or economic, was unacceptable.


He came from a well-to-do Bengali family and entered films as an assistant cameraman in New Theatres Pvt. Ltd. His first film as a director was 'Udayer Pathey' (1944) in Bengali. The film was a critical success. Right from his first film, Bimal was able to introduce a realism and subtlety-suited theme to the cinema.


Bimalda migrated to Mumbai after the collapse of New Theatres. His first film there was 'Maa', a typical melodrama. He then made ‘Parineeta', a film based on Sarat Chandra's story. Later he made his breakthrough film ‘Do Bigha Zameen'. Bimalda made ‘Devdas', which inspite of having its moments, was not very commercially successful. Then he delivered hits like ‘Madhumati', 'Yahudi' with Nutan, Sujata and Bandini. Bimal Roy died in 1966.