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
Satyajit Ray Renoir about his idea of filming "Pather Panchali", which had long been on his mind, and Renoir encouraged him in the project. In 1950, D.J. Keymer sent Ray to London to work at its headquarters office. During his three months in London, Ray watched 99 films. Among these was the neorealist film "Ladri di biciclette" ("Bicycle Thieves") (1948) by Vittorio De Sica, which had a profound impact on him. Ray later said that he came out of the theatre determined to become a film-maker. Ray decided to use "Pather Panchali" (1928), the classic "Bildungsroman" of Bengali literature, as the basis