How did Pather Panchali get made with no money and no actors?

We pawned my wife Bijoya's jewelry. That bought us enough film stock to begin. Subrata Mitra was still a photographer, not a cinematographer. Bansi Chandragupta built sets from bamboo and jute. The children were from the village — Subir Banerjee had never stood before a camera. Karuna Banerjee was not an actress but a housewife who understood the role of Sarbajaya from inside her own kitchen. We shot on Saturdays and Sundays for two years, whenever I could gather three hundred rupees. I was still designing advertisements for Keymer's during the week. Sometimes we had to stop for months because there was no money for film or travel to Boral. Eventually the West Bengal government gave us a loan after seeing some rushes. That allowed us to finish. But by then we had already shot the death of Durga, the train sequence, the pond — everything that mattered was done in pieces, between long silences. I think this poverty forced clarity. No crane, no dolly, no lights beyond what the sun gave us. We had to ask: what does this scene actually need? Usually the answer was very simple. A child's face. The monsoon starting. An old woman walking toward the horizon.