Soumitra made his debut with "Apur Sansar" (1959) and, over the next three decades, would work in Ray projects as "Devi" (1960), "Teen Kanya" (1961), "Abhijan" (1962), "Charulata" (1964), "Kapurush O Mahapurush" (1965), "Aranyer Din Ratri" (1969), "Ashani Sanket" (1973), "Sonar Kella" (1974), "Joy Baba Felunath" (1978), "Hirak Rajar Deshe" (1980), "Ghare Baire" (1984), "Ganashatru" (1989) and "Shakha Proshakha" (1990).
Soumitra's cinematic fate is overwhelmingly dictated by the great cinema of Satyajit Ray, so much so the maestro's filmography through his most important phase outlines the actor's career graph. Soumitra would eventually bag the role opposite Sharmila Tagore, of course, and the rest is history. A friend introduced Soumitra to the master filmmaker who promptly declared the budding actor looked too old to be Apu, a college student according to his script. Ray was looking for his adult Apu in "Apur Sansar", final part of the Apu trilogy that started with "Pather Panchali". It took a Ray to bring to life Soumitra's greatness, and yet the account of their first meeting is a well-known story in Bengal.
Beyond such a nuanced portrayal, he could also simply become Ray's Feluda and reach out to every audience, eight to 80. Importantly, Soumitra Chattopadhyay's greatness as a screen icon will survive the test of time in Bengali pop lore because he had something for everyone. He is the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (2012) and Padma Bhushan (2004) recipient who was also honoured with the Legion d'Honneur (2018) in France for his contribution to world cinema. He was the mascot of the peerless Satyajit Ray's oeuvre, having worked with the maestro in 14 films, and yet he scored with the same assuredness in works of contemporary commercial powerhouses as Ajoy Kar and Tarun Mazumdar. His stardom was sensational, and yet born out of realism. Soumitra Chattopadhyay - Chatterjee to anglicised India - answers to the term ‘phenomenon' as absolutely as few actors do, for the sheer ease with which he defied the cliches of image.
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