The story revolves around a matinee idol on a 24-hour train journey from Kolkata to Delhi to receive a national award.

[1][2] The film stars Uttam Kumar as the titular 'nayak' (hero), and Sharmila Tagore as second lead.

In Nayak, Uttam Kumar plays Arindam Mukherjee with such poise and ease that it appears as if he is portraying his own life on the celluloid.

Aditi is the only person Arindam opens up to; the tantalizing conversations between the two characters offer some great food for thought.

Ray uses the various interactions between the co-passengers to make us realize that the hypocrisies and follies of a star are not much different from that of an ordinary man.

Like his films, his short stories too mirrored this preference of his – most of them describing the lives of ordinary men – all of whom were, without exception, very lonely.

[5] A famous actor of Bengali films, Arindam Mukherjee (Uttam Kumar), is invited to the capital, Delhi to receive a prestigious award.

In the restaurant car, he meets Aditi Sengupta (Sharmila Tagore), a young journalist who edits a modern women's magazine, Adhunika.

[6] In a letter by Ray in 1966, he wrote: I wanted a relationship to develop between the Matinee Idol and a girl on the train.

So I made Aditi a slightly snooty sophisticate who questions and resists the easy charm, good looks, sangfroid, etc etc.

At first he is ‘material’ for her for a journalistic probe, until the process of unbarring reaches a point where she realizes it would be unethical to exploit it.

Intellectually clearly above him, her goodness consists in providing him with the small area of contact that exists between them... [7]Uttam Kumar was the obvious choice for the role of Arindam ever since Ray had written the film.

When Ray couldn't find any artist for the role of Aditi he suddenly thought of Sharmila Tagore.

Soumitra Chatterjee who was a known face in Ray's films as a lead actor, was also wanted to play Arindam on screen.

The art director Banshi Chandra Gupta personally visited in Santragachi junction to see train compartment making.

When Uttam Kumar arrived in Indira Hall, there were thousands of people gathered to see him and police was employed to handle the situation.

This was the first time when the two icons of Bengali Cinema Satyajit Ray and Uttam Kumar worked together.

When the famous Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor saw Nayak in London she become impressed with Uttam's outstanding performance and screen presence in the film.

And yet he constantly surprised and delighted me with unexpected little details of action and behaviour which came from him and not from me, which were always in character and always enhanced a scene.

[16] The 2010 Bengali film Autograph directed by Srijit Mukherjee was made as a tribute to Nayak.