The Hero (1966) Poster

Designed for the From Below Screening on June 12th, 2025

Many posters and iconography for Satyajit Ray’s The Hero/Nayak (1966) revolve around the face of the lead actor, notable Bengali superstar Uttam Kumar, who plays a celebrity actor in the movie as well. I didn’t stray far from this imagery (see the Criterion Collection cover for another iteration of this visual), but used a fractal grid to alter Kumar’s visage, hinting towards the cross-cutting interactions that his character Arindam Mukherjee has during the film with several different characters along one train ride, who all have different interpretations and relationships to fame. The typography for the title derives from the signatures that a figure with this level of popularity is required to dispense on a daily basis.