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Born in Calcutta in 1963, Bengali director Subrata Sen's first artistic outlet was as a writer for the children's magazine Sandesh, which was edited by Indian film legend Satyajit Ray. Working closely with Ray left an indelible impression on the young Sen, though as an adult he would go on to a career in journalism. After laboring in that profession for some 14 years, Sen made an abrupt jump into filmmaking with his 2001 directorial debut The Girl -- which earned Sen the Srinivas National Award for the best Indian debut of the year as well as being an official selection to the 2001 Karlovy Vary Film Festival. His follow-up film, 2002's ...And They Dared to Dream -- while not as successful as The Girl -- also earned inclusion into that year's Locarno Film Festival line-up, proving Sen to be an emerging maverick of Bengali and Indian cinema.