Trisha Ray

Trisha Ray
Nationality American
Occupation Animal Advocate, Filmmaker, Screenwriter, Producer, Actor, Editor

Trisha Ray is an award-winning independent producer, screenwriter, filmmaker, actor and editor.[1][2]

She is the grandniece of BAFTA nominated actress Karuna Banerjee. Her grandfather Dr. Bimal Roy, an ObGyn by profession, was so passionate about music, that he compiled three encyclopedias in Eastern Classical Music which are used by researchers all around the globe.[3]

Trisha dropped out of pre-med during her sophomore year to pursue creative arts. She speaks Bengali, English and Spanish fluently.

Early years

She was born into a joint-family of artists and physicians. She enjoyed reading. So, each time she scored high marks in her class, her grandmother would reward her with a new book.

She also enjoyed spending time at her grandfather, Dr. Bimal Ray's clinic where she would be allowed to call names of the patients from the waiting list. Until 5, she was certain she wanted to be a physician like her grandfather, but then she visited the rehearsals at her father and uncle's theatre company and fell in love with the whole process. She loved watching her father direct actors, loved her uncle's acting skills and was awed by their knowledge of literature and plays.

At 6, she was a regular at these rehearsals where she read lines for missing actors and hung out backstage during productions. Noticing her love for acting and reading, her grandparents enrolled her in a children's theatre club but she lasted only one evening there after being bored among children her age. Through her father's theatre, she got to study the works of Anton Chekhov, Bertolt Brecht, Rabindranath Tagore, Tennessee Williams, Oscar Wilde, Badal Sarkar at a very young age.

Soon she was cast by her father in his production and started training under him with the method of Russian director Constantin Stanislavski which she practices even today.

Trisha lived a few blocks from San Banarje and they grew up in the same neighborhood with the same friends. Their combined passion for art took them to meet noted poet Gulzar for a television series and learned among other things, humility from the Oscar winner. When they moved to Houston, they started a production company called 'Lake Camp Productions' and an actor's studio called 'Next Actor Studio.'

Films

During her pre-teen years, Trisha was involved in writing poetry and essays for school magazines. It was then that she self-taught herself screenwriting by reading books written by Syd Field and watching movies. While visiting India in one of her breaks, Trisha was introduced to TV software company by Costume designer Subarna Ray Chaudhuri where she got an internship as a tech demonstrator for a month and learned to use different editing systems on the internship.

Krzysztof Kieslowski, Michael Haneke, Satyajit Ray, Woody Allen, Luis Buñuel, Jim Jarmusch, David Lynch and Martin Scorsese and John Cassavetes educated and inspired her the most.

After working on sets and location in different countries including USA, England and Argentina, in 2000, San and Trisha officially started their production company Lake Camp Productions in Houston to continue making independent films. Trisha wrote and directed an experimental feature called 'Flipped', starring San Banarje and a group of friends and acquaintances. To accommodate the acting style of her friends, she had to rewrite the script on location, finally ending with only San Banarje as a cast with dialogues. The challenges of working with non-actors who took the film as a hobby taught her the importance of working with trained and involved actors. It also made her study harder and learn from her own mistakes that she made while making the film. She considers the editing process of her experimental as the best film school she didn't attend. She credits Robert Rodriguez as her guru.

In 2003, San and Trisha started their film studio called 'Next Actor Studio' to form a team of professional actors who, like them, would passionately pursue filmmaking. They started making several shorts and music videos to stay busy. In 2007, Trisha met Christian screenwriter and evangelist Brian Stewart and produced and directed several of his screenplays to distribute to schools, colleges, churches, prisons etc.

In 2006, Trisha wrote the screenplay of the comedy 'Bleep Love' based on an idea of San Banarje. The film starred a number of actors and actresses from Houston. While Trisha was looking for original music for her comedy feature that she wrote and directed titled Bleep Love.,[4] actor/musician Ryan Donowho,[5] whose father Wayne Donowho[6] played a supporting role in the film, came forward with a soundtrack CD and donated it to be used as background score of the film.

In 2007, Trisha directed her first Christian film Federal Case for Boat Angel Family Films, an Arizona-based film company whose films educate teens and children with messages of love and faith.

In 2009, Trisha directed her first film in Calcutta, India, her second Christian film "Sugarbaby" for Boat Angel Family Films, based on a script by Brian Stewart. The film was produced and shot by San Banarje who also acted in it. This was the first time that Trisha and San got a chance to work with the legendary thespian Soumitra Chatterjee. They were so awed by the actor, that they decided to shoot a Bengali language feature with Soumitra soon. Meantime, back in USA, they shot a short film Terracotta while traveling cross-country USA.

In winter 2009, Trisha and San returned to India with a script titled Bodhisattva, written specifically for Soumitra Chatterjee in the title role. [7] Trisha was chosen to act alongside Soumitra as his disturbed daughter.

During Bodhisattva rehearsals, director San Banarje was not convinced by Trisha's performance and gave her the first day of shoot to prove to him that she could play the role of Maya or get recast. Her first day of shoot was opposite Soumitra Chatterjee who was playing her father Bodhisattva. To prepare for the role, she took off for seven days, watched every movie of her grandaunt Karuna Banerjee whose acting style inspired her and decided to cut communications with everyone until the picture wrapped. After her first scene was shot, director San Banarje was excited by her performance and applauded her for her dedication. The entire film was shot in the home of Trisha's mother who stayed in one room until the day's shoot was over.[8]

In 2011, Trisha again was involved in the production of two features and one short. After finishing production of a Christian feature "Inside Out" in Houston in July, Trisha left for Buenos Aires, Argentina to get materials for her screenplay "9 July, Buenos Aires (Regression)" that she had started writing in 2010. Being in the city where the story actually takes place helped her move forward with her research and weave the Dictatorship era with present day political situation of the country. She also started pre-production on her short film Marcha Atrás in Buenos Aires, that she shot in December of that year after finishing the shoot of The Nowhere Son as an actress in Calcutta, India.

In September 2011, Trisha returned to India to work in The Nowhere Son starring Soumitra Chatterjee for the third time in their film. The film was named as top five Don't Miss Movies at 2013 Worldfest by movie critic Joe Leydon.[9]

In December 2011, Trisha went back to Buenos Aires to film her short titled Marcha Atrás that she made as a prelude to her feature "Regression" aka 9 July. Buenos Aires.

In 2012, back in Houston, Trisha focused on making PSA videos to raise cancer awareness through a non-profit foundation that she founded with San Banarje called "The Next Samaritan Project" and started to spread the word to donate shoes to barefoot rickshawpuller, cartpullers and children. She was successful in involving a good number of youths to work as they donated unused and forgotten shoes to the barefoot rickshawpullers in their neighborhood. This helps the men to stay off injuries caused by glasses and nails and other sharp objects on the streets as they run with their carts and rickshaws.

In 2013, Trisha worked in three features. Her screenplay The Shadow Behind You that she co-wrote with director San Banarje was followed by the surreal drama Artisse, written by Brian Stewart that she directed, and the comedy Sex, Marriage and Infidelity that she produced and edited for debuting director Richard Finger. The film starred KISS frontman Gene Simmons' daughter Sophie and wife Shannon Tweed.

In 2014, Trisha started production of her screenplay titled '9 Jul. Buenos Aires' (Regression) about the Dirty War in Argentina through the eyes of a little girl.[10] She had started writing the script in 2010 and worked in Buenos Aires in 2011 to scout locations and work in casting and production with friends in Argentina cinema. After many years of working on the script, Director San Banarje cast Spanish actor Javier Godino in the lead role.

Filmography

References

  1. ↑ Times talks to Ray about winning the award for Federal Case
  2. ↑ Times group speed news about Sugarbaby winning an award
  3. ↑ Dr. Bimal Roy, creator of Eastern Music Encyclopedia
  4. ↑ bleep love on imdb
  5. ↑ Ryan donates music to Bleep Love
  6. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2291592/
  7. ↑ Interview with Soumitra Chatterjee and Trisha Ray about Bodhisattva by 'Telegraph India'
  8. ↑ NPR's Bob Stevenson chats with San and Trisha about 'Bodhisattva'
  9. ↑ 'The Nowhere Son' among Joe Leydon's Five Don't Miss Movies at 2013 Worldfest
  10. ↑ Official page of '9 July. Buenos Aires

External links