Beyond the spectacles: New exhibition shows a different side of Satyajit Ray

New Delhi: For generations, Satyajit Ray has lived in public memory in black-and-white. The filmmaker is remembered through iconic portraits — his trademark spectacles, directing on set, smoking between takes, or gazing into the distance with characteristic intensity. These images have become inseparable from his cultural legacy in India.

A new exhibition at Delhi Art Gallery is challenging that familiar image. Titled Faces and Facets: Satyajit Ray in Color, the show is on view till July 4 and presents the filmmaker through rarely-seen colour photographs by Nemai Ghosh. Ghosh documented Ray’s life and work for over two decades. The exhibition offers audiences a chance to encounter one of the world’s most-studied filmmakers anew, moving beyond the monochrome portraits that defined him.