Satyajit Ray (1921–1992), a Bengali film director from India, is well known for his contributions to Bengali literature. He created two of the most famous characters in Bengali: Feluda the sleuth, and Professor Shanku the scientist. He wrote several short novels and stories in addition to those based on these two characters. His fiction was targeted mainly at younger readers, though it became popular among children and adults alike.
Most of his novels and stories in Bengali have been published by Ananda Publishers, Kolkata; and most of his screenplays have been published in Bengali in the literary journal Ekshan, edited by his close friend Nirmalya Acharya. During the mid-1990s, Ray's film essays and an anthology of short stories were also published in the West. Many of the stories have been translated into English and published.
Feluda, whose real name is Pradosh Chandra Mitra, is a fictional Kolkata-based private detective. He is usually accompanied by 2 sidekicks: Topshe (his cousin–Tapesh Ranjan Mitra) and Lalmohan Ganguly, usually described as Lalmohan Babu (who himself writes with the pseudonym of Jatayu), a bumbling writer of crime fiction. Satyajit Ray wrote thirty-five Feluda stories, most of which were extremely popular, and made into films two of the Feluda stories–Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress) (1974) and Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God) (1978).
Professor Shanku (Professor Shonku), or Trilokeshwar Shanku, is a fictional scientist appearing in a series of science-fiction books. He lives in Giridih beside the river Usri. He has a male servant named Prahllad and a cat named Newton living in the house. He was a child prodigy, and achieved several academic distinctions. He has his own laboratory in his house where he does research for many new and fantastic inventions. He is world-renowned for the armory of these diverse inventions. The adventures of Professor Shanku are set in several countries throughout the world.