Ray started his professional career in film at the age of 24 as
assistant director on the sets of his father's film
Shatranj Ke Khilari (
The Chess Players, 1977). Before this, he had aided his father in various capacities including still photographer on
set. His directorial debut was
Phatik Chand (1983) based on
Satyajit Ray's
Fatik Chand – the film received an award in the International Children's Film Festival in Vancouver. Sandip Ray is also a noted photographer. He was the director of photography on Satyajit Ray's last three films,
Ganashatru (
An Enemy of the People, 1989),
Shakha Proshakha (
The Branches of the Tree, 1990) and
Agantuk (
The Stranger, 1991). Sandip Ray also guided the children's magazine
Sandesh, which was founded by his great-grandfather
Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, and continued by his grandfather
Sukumar Ray and his father
Satyajit Ray. From 1992, after the death of Satyajit, Sandip was the Joint Editor of the
Sandesh. Since 2003 he has been the editor of the magazine. Sandip Ray has recently come up with his account of the time he has had with
Feluda, the famous Bengali detective created by his father, in a book named
Aami aar Feluda, published by Deep Prakashan.
Aami aar Feluda was one of the best sellers at the last Kolkata Book Fair. First published in the magazine
Sukhi Grihokon as a short series,
Aami aar Feluda retains the flavor of
Ekei Bole Shooting, written by Satyajit Ray. Sandip's book deals with the background stories of all
Feluda movies and
telefilms.
Aami aar Feluda is ghost-written by author Sebabrata Banerjee. Sebabrata has tried to follow the smart and fluent style of writing introduced by Satyajit Ray which has made the new Feluda number a good reading experience. He made a video-documentary film on the late
Kishore Kumar in 1989. In 2003, Sandip Ray began working on adapting his father
Satyajit Ray's original 1962 story
Bankhubabur Bandhu into a Bengali television film of the same name. The film, directed by
Kaushik Sen, was eventually shown on
Indian television in 2006. He started to score background music for Feluda from the film
Bombaiyer Bombete (2003). Sandip Ray used his first written thriller story for his own directed film
Hitlist, 2009. In 2016, he directed a new
Feluda film titled
Double Feluda which is the sequel to
Royal Bengal Rohosso (2011). During the shooting of
Double Feluda, produced by
Eros International, Sandip Ray filmed his father's famous library. In 2019, he directed a film titled
Professor Shonku O El Dorado, based on a story of
Satyajit Ray's
Professor Shonku series called
Nakur Babu O El Dorado. The film starred veteran actor
Dhritiman Chatterjee as Professor Shonku. The film has been produced by
SVF Entertainment. ==Filmography==