Sabitri Chatterjee the actor who would later perform as "Harihar Roy", in Satyajit Ray's "Pather Panchali" and "Aparajito". Sabitri also acted the film version of the play which was released in 1953. She made her big screen debut in Uttam Kumar starrer "Sahajatri" (1951) directed by Agradoot and appeared as her first female lead in Sudhir Mukherjee's comedy film "Pasher Bari" (1952) which was a major success at box office. Sabitri Chatterjee's next film assignment was "Subhada" (1952) – a film based on a novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and directed by Niren Lahiri along with Chhabi Biswas and Pahari Sanyal. In
Pather Panchali the progress of Ray's project. Huston saw excerpts of the unfinished film and recognised "the work of a great film-maker". Because of Huston's positive feedback, MoMA helped Ray with additional money. Including the delays and hiatuses in production, it took three years to complete the shooting of "Pather Panchali". The realist narrative style of "Pather Panchali" was influenced by Italian neorealism and the works of French director Jean Renoir. In 1949 Renoir came to Calcutta to shoot his film "The River" (1951). Ray, a founding member of the Calcutta Film Society (established in 1947), helped him scout for locations in