Nayak or The Hero, film by Satyajit Ray

Nayak, known in the US as Nayak: The Hero, was produced in 1966 in the Bengali language, West Bengal, India. This respected work in Indian Cinema was created by Satyajit Ray.

The story chronicles the life of a famous Bengali movie star, Arindam, who has been invited to an award ceremony. When dining in the restaurant car of the train he has been forced to ride, he happens upon a young journalist named Aditi. After deciding to interview him out of spite, Aditi is given an entire life story by Arindam himself, which chronicles his hidden fears and weaknesses his outer shell never portrays. As he pours out his heart, Arindam states in a drunken monologue that he is going to commit suicide, and confesses to having an affair.

This film features the talents of Uttam Kumar as Arindam and Sharmila Tagore as Aditi.

Nayak: The Hero was directed and written by Satyajit Ray, and was produced by RDB & CO. Subrata Mitra oversaw the cinematography, Editing was provided by Dulal Dutta, Art Direction was done by Bansi Chandragupta and Nripen Pal and Sujit Sarkar. Atul Chatterjee created the sound for the film.

The following awards have been presented to this film:

• Best Screenplay and story. New Delhi. 1967
• Special Jury Award. Berlin. 1966
• Critics’ Prize. Berlin. 1966