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 established crew. Funding was a problem from the outset. No producer was willing to finance the film, as it lacked stars, songs and action scenes. On learning of Ray's plan, one producer, Mr Bhattacharya of Kalpana Movies, contacted Bandopadhyay's widow to request the filming rights and get the film made by Debaki Bose, a well-established director. The widow declined as she had already permitted Ray to make the film. The estimated budget for the production was 70,000 (about US$14,613 in 1955). One producer, Rana Dutta, gave money to continue shooting, but had to stop after some of his films flopped.