Trisha Ray is an independent film director known for films like "Flipped", "The Shadow Behind You"," 9 July, Buenos Aires" etc. She also works as a producer, screenwriter, actor and editor. Her grandfather Dr. Bimal Roy, who was passionate about music, compiled three encyclopedias in Eastern Classical Music which are used by researchers all around the globe. Fluent in Bengali, English and Spanish, Trisha along with her friend San Banarje started a non-profit foundation called "The Next Samaritan Project†to raise cancer awareness.
Early Life of Trisha Ray
She was born into a joint-family of artists and physicians. Her childhood was heavily influenced by art and culture. Initially she aimed to be a physician like her grandfather but later changed her mind when she visited the rehearsals at her father and uncle`s theatre company. At a very young age, she got to study the works of Anton Chekhov, Bertolt Brecht, Rabindranath Tagore, Tennessee Williams, Oscar Wilde, Badal Sarkar through her father"s theatre. Soon, she was cast by her father in his production and started training under him with the method of Russian director Constantin Stanislavski. Trisha lived a few blocks from San Banarje, a multiple award-winning American independent filmmaker.
Career of Trisha Ray
Trisha started her career by making independent films. During one of her visits to India, she was introduced to TV Software Company by Costume designer Subarna Ray Chaudhuri. This is the place where she did an internship as a tech demonstrator for a month and learned to use different editing systems on the internship. During her tenure there, she worked on sets and locations in different countries including USA, England and Argentina. Eventually in the year 2000, Trisha along with San started their production company Lake Camp Productions in Houston to continue making independent films. Trisha wrote and directed an experimental feature titled `Flipped`, starring San Banarje in an important role. Next in 2003, they started their film studio called `Next Actor Studio` to form a team of professional actors. They made several shorts and music videos. In 2006, Trisha wrote the screenplay of the comedy `Bleep Love` based on an idea of San Banarje.
In 2007, she met screenwriter and evangelist Brian Stewart and produced and directed several of his screenplays to distribute to schools, colleges, churches, prisons etc. In the same year, she directed her first Christian film Federal Case for Boat Angel Family Films, an Arizona-based film company. The company makes films to educate teens and children with messages of love and faith.
Trisha made her directorial debut in Kolkata in the year 2009. Her first film in Kolkata was "Sugarbaby" for Boat Angel Family Films, featuring legendary thespian Soumitra Chatterjee. The film was based on a script by Brian Stewart. It was produced and shot by San Banarje who also acted in it. In the same year, she made another film titled Bodhisattva, written specifically for Soumitra Chatterjee in the title role. In this film, Trisha acted alongside Soumitra as his disturbed daughter. The entire film was shot in the home of Trisha`s mother. Her third venture with Soumitra Chatterjee was The Nowhere Son. The film, which released in 2011, was named as top five Don`t Miss Movies at 2013 Worldfest by movie critic Joe Leydon.
In 2013, Trisha worked in three features including The Shadow Behind You, Artisse and Sex, Marriage and Infidelity. In the following year, she started production of her screenplay titled "9 July, Buenos Aires". The film starred Spanish actor Javier Godino in the lead role.
Social Work by Trisha Ray
Trisha and San founded a non-profit foundation called "The Next Samaritan Project". The aim of the foundation was to make PSA videos to raise cancer awareness and spread the word to donate shoes to barefoot rickshawpuller, cartpullers and children. The foundation managed to receive a good number of unused and forgotten shoes for the rickshawpullers in their neighborhood. The idea behind the shoe collection was to help the rickshawpullers to stay off injuries caused by various sharp objects on the streets as they run with their rickshaws.
