11/08/2026
Film Heritage Foundation, in collaboration with the RDB Organization, celebrates the birth centenary of Uttam Kumar (1926) - 1980) with a special screening of Satyajit Ray’s Nayak (1966) on September 3, 2026 at 06:30 pm at Regal Cinema, Mumbai.
Join us to celebrate one of Bengali cinema’s most iconic stars and revisit one of his most celebrated performances —as Arindam Mukherjee, a matinee idol confronting his dreams, fears and contradictions over a single train journey.
The Mahanayak Uttam Kumar born Arun Kumar Chatterjee, broke away from established codes of onscreen performance, came to anchor an entire industry and led the efforts to reimagine popular cinema in mid-20th-century Bengal. His is the story of a clerk who became an actor, an actor who became a star, a star who became an icon and an icon who became a legend. Uttam Kumar excelled in wrestling, swimming, horse-riding and also took up singing lessons once he determined to be an actor and made his debut with Nitin Bose’s ‘Drishtidaan’ (1948). He then starred in ‘Sahajatri’ (1951), turned his luck with ‘Basu Parivar’ (1952) and achieved a big hit with ‘Sharey Chuattar’ (1953) which was also his first film opposite Suchitra Sen. It is here that the most romantic and sellable pair for decades was formed by the two actors, who appeared together in around 30 films and defined an era of Bengali popular melodrama. Some of Uttam Kumar’s key films include ‘Ora Thake Odhare’ (1954), ‘Agni Pariksha’ (1954), ‘Sagarika’ (1956), ‘Harano Sur’ (1957), ‘Indrani’ (1958), ‘Khelaghar’ (1959), ‘Bicharak’ (1959), ‘Marutirtha Hinglaj’ (1959), ‘Saptapadi’ (1961), ‘Jhinder Bandi’ (1961), ‘Bhranti Bilas’ (1963), ‘Lal Pathar’ (1964), ‘Jotugriha’ (1964), ‘Thana Theke Aschi’ (1965), ‘Kal Tumi Aleya’ (1966), ‘Antony Firingee’ (1967), ‘Nishi Padma’ (1970), among many others. His film ‘Chiriyakhana’ (1967), also directed by Ray, is the first film to be based on the Byomkesh Bakshi series, authored by the popular Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay.
Ray said about the actor, “There is none like Uttam and there will be no one to ever replace him. He was and he is unparalleled in Bengali, even Indian, cinema.” Additionally, he contributed to cinema in other roles as well - he was also a singer, a music composer, and a successful producer and director. The legacy of Uttam Kumar as a star remains unchallenged.
FHF would like to thank Varsha Bansal of the RDB Organization, the copyright holder of the film, for making this screening possible.
