Subrata Mitra as a cinematographer with Satyajit Ray, the legendary Indian film maker, for "Pather Panchali" (1955). He continued to work with him for many of Ray's later films. He is known for pioneering the technique of bounce lighting, while filming "The Apu Trilogy". Satyajit Ray thought that "Subrata Mitra’s camera work is better than Raoul Coutard’s". Coutard was at the time much more acclaimed than Mitra having collaborated with Godard on many of his film projects. One of his most important technical innovations was his introduction of bounce lighting, which he pioneered while filming "Aparajito" (1956), the second part of "The
Pather Panchali shot on location with an amateur cast. The international success of Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" (1950) and Bimal Roy's 1953 film "Do Bigha Zamin" (which was shot partly on location and was about a peasant family) led Ray to believe that "Pather Panchali" would find an international audience. Ray also had more indigenous influences, such as Bengali literature and the native Indian theatrical tradition, particularly the "rasa" theory of classical Sanskrit drama. Darius Cooper describes the complicated doctrine of "rasa" as " predominantly on feelings experienced not only by the characters but also conveyed in a certain artistic way to the