Sudhendu Roy was an admired Indian film director, art director and production designer who worked primarily for the Hindi film industry. He is most remembered for his realistic art direction in Bimal Roy`s films such as Bandini, Madhumati and Sujata along with his glitzy work in flicks like Silsila, Karz, Chandni and others. He was a three times winner of Filmfare Award for Best Art Direction. His directional ventures were also hugely applauded by the critics and two of them became India"s official entry to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Early Life of Sudhendu Roy
Sudhendu Roy was born in the year 1921 in Pabna which is presently in Bangladesh. His father, Puranchandra Roy, worked as a lawyer and was also a writer and an active participant of the Indian freedom movement. He wanted his son to be a lawyer as well but Sudhendu Roy had other plans. He thus took admission fees in the name of joining a law college in Kolkata thereby running away from home, never to return.

Career of Sudhendu Roy
Sudhendu Roy was a self taught man and began his career as a commercial artist. Initially he struggled for a few years and later joined the Bengali film industry in Kolkata as an art director. His meeting with Parimal Roy, the brother and cameraman of the renowned film director Bimal Roy, paved his way to a successful career in the film industry. He worked for the film Anjangarh (1948) under the direction of Bimal Roy. The movie marked to be a commercial success and with it started his collaboration with Bimal Roy that continued throughout the film career of the latter. Subsequently he also worked with prominent directors like Hiten Choudhary and Tapan Sinha. In early 1950s he shifted to Mumbai as a part of the team of Bimal Roy and began working for the Hindi cinema. In Bollywood, he worked as an art director for some of the famous movies like Bandini, Sujata, Yahudi, Madhumati, Biraj Bahu and many more.

While he was at the zenith of his career as an art director, Sudhendu Roy got an offer for directing the film Uphaar under the production of Tarachand Barjatya of Rajshri Productions in 1971. It was based on Rabindranath Tagore`s story Samapti and marked the first solo lead role of Jaya Bachchan. The film got selected as India"s entry to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Following this he directed Saudagar in 1973 starring Amitabh Bachchan, Nutan and Padma Khanna. Based on Bengali story Ras by Narendranath Mitra, the film was a commercial failure but received much critical applause and also became India`s entry to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His films Jeevan Mukt and Sweekar were based on his own stories. His last directional venture was a romantic comedy, Aap Ki Khatir starring Rekha and Vinod Khanna which featured the hit song `Bombai se Aaya Mera Dost`. For the next two decades he continued his work as a production designer during which he collaborated with new generation of filmmakers like Yash Johar and Subhash Ghai.

Personal Life of Sudhendu Roy
During his days in the film industry Sudhendu Roy had befriended the famed art director Ganesh Basak. Roy later married his sister Krishna. The couple had three children and their youngest daughter Sharmishta Roy also works as an art director in the Hindi cinema. Krishnendu, their son, owns an animation studio and another daughter Sumona lives in Canada.

Death of Sudhendu Roy
Sudhendu Roy died in the year 1999 in the city of Mumbai.

Filmography of Sudhendu Roy as a Director