Every year on legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s birth anniversary, Goregaon-based visual artist Aniket Mitra tries to celebrate his childhood icon in his own way. A few years ago, it was a set of witty minimalist posters of Ray’s films; in 2020, it was a lively sketch of a selfie of the bossman with some of his illustrious colleagues. In 2021, on Ray`s birth centenary, with the pandemic raging around us, Mitra, a storyboard consultant who’s worked on hits like Dil Bechara, was in no mindspace to celebrate. “I lost my father in late 2020, and have been devastated with the current state of affairs,” shared the Kolkata native who was also helping coordinate Covid-19 relief work.

Satyajit Ray