Subir Banerjee (born 1946 in Calcutta) is an Indian actor who played Apu in Satyajit Ray's Bengali film Pather Panchali (lit.
During the pre-production of Pather Panchali, Satyajit Ray advertised in newspapers seeking boys between five and seven years of age for the role of Apu.
[2] Andrew Robinson, in his book Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye, describes that at the beginning of the shooting of Pather Panchali in 1952, Subir Banerjee was a "decidedly unresponsive actor".
Satyajit Ray became nervous, among other things, that the voice of Banerjee, a growing young boy, would break, thereby causing a problem in the continuity of the film.
India Today, a magazine, tracked him down and published his details in an article, "Pather Panchali: An Odyssey Revisited", in March 1980.
[8] The director mentioned in an interview that he found similarities between certain parts of the life of Subir Banerjee and the iconic character Apu.