Producer-director Bimal Roy was one of India's finest film-makers. Roy started off as a cameraman in the 1930s before progressing to become a director in the mid-40s. He set up his own banner, Bimal Roy Productions in 1952. A year later, Roy made Do Bigha Zamin (1953), which won the Filmfare Award for Best Film at the inaugural Awards ceremony. Bimal also won the Filmfare Award as Best Director for the same film.

Roy also won the next two Best Director Awards and achieved a second hatrick in the same category with Madhumati (1958), Sujata (1959) and Parakh (1960). Bimal Roy's last film was the highly acclaimed Bandini (1963), which featured an excellent performance by Nutan. A film maker of the standard of Roy will not be seen in the industry for a long time.