Biography
Subrata Mitra (12 October 1930 – 7 December 2001) was an Indian cinematographer. Born in Kolkata, he began his career as a still photographer and observed filming on Jean Renoir’s The River (1951). At the age of 21 he served as cinematographer on Satyajit Ray’s debut feature Pather Panchali (1955), having had no prior experience operating a motion picture camera.
Mitra collaborated with Ray on nine further films, including Aparajito (1956), The Music Room (1958), The World of Apu (1959), Devi (1960), The Big City (1963), Charulata (1964) and The Hero (1966). He also worked with James Ivory on The Householder (1963), Shakespeare Wallah (1965), The Guru (1969) and Bombay Talkie (1970). He is noted for developing the bounce lighting technique. From 1997 he taught cinematography at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata. He received the Padma Shri in 1985 and a National Film Award for New Delhi Times (1986).
