Satyajit Ray
India's internationally reknowned filmaker, Satyajit Ray(1921-1992), was born into a family of artistic Bengali heritage. He started off as a graphic artist and later became an art director in an advertising agency. He illustrated children's books and his grandfather's legacy was a children's magazine known as "Sandesh". He was also asked to illustrate Bibhuti Bhusan Banerjee's classic novel, "Pather Panchali" in 1946.
After watching Vittorio de Sica's The Bicycle Thief(Ladri di Biciclette 1948) in 1950 while on a trip to London, Ray was excited about the idea of being able to make a film without professional actors and shot on actual locations. Following the neo-realism movement, he adapted "Pather Panchali" into a script and made his first film. Using non-professional actors and shot on actual locations instead of studio sets, this film took him four years to complete (he filmed on weekends whilst tackling his daily job). When it was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, he won several international awards.
Pather Panchali(1955) was the first of the Apu Trilogy. It was followed by Aparajito(1956) and The World of Apu(1959). Ray's films were poetic narratives of the trivial lives of Bengali characters with strong humanistic themes. I haven't had the privilage of watching any of his films though.