A description of Indian cinema is incomplete without Soumitra Chatterjee. He is one of the best actors that Satyajit Ray had ever discovered. Throughout the world the famous director-actor collaboration includes Akira Kurosawa-Toshiro Mifune, Martin Scorcese- Robert De Niro and in India it would definitely be Satyajit Ray-Soumitra Chatterjee. Inspite of Uttam Kumar ruling the Bengali filmdom in the 1960s and 1970s Soumitra Chatterjee successfully established himself as one of the most versatile actors of Bengali cinema. He has worked in several films of Satyajit Ray. In fact he was introduced by Ray in Apur Sansar. The audience lived him and he was accepted by them whole heartedly.

Soumitra Chatterjee was pitted against the legendary Uttam Kumar in Jhinder Bandi. He was more than impressive in the role of Mayurbahan, a villainous character. He excelled in the role. Soumitra Chatterjee has worked as a child actor in theatre and was close to Shishir Bhadra. The man has acted in around 300 films out of which 14 were made by Satyajit Ray. Besides him Soumitra has also worked with Basu Chatterjee, Mrinal Sen, Asit Sen, Ajoy Kar, Tarun Mazumdar. Apur Sansar was released in the year 1959.

Soumitra Chatterjee was a star after his debut movie but he was not the conventional star. Though he went ahead to star in commercial films yet he differed with his intelligent looks and multilayered acting set him apart from the rest of the crowd. He is one of those rare actors who was comfortable with both the art and commercial films. In fact he was referred to as the thinking man`s actor as well. He constantly experimented with his role and that added to his popularity, as he was never stereotyped.

Soumitra Chatterjee`s films with the maestro Satyajit Ray include Devi (1960), Abhijan (1962), Charulata (1964), Kapurush (1965) and Aranyer Din Ratri (1969). Charulata is considered to be the greatest film of Ray and Soumitra and Madhabi Chatterjee were brilliant in their roles. What followed after this film were Ashani Sanket (1973), Sonar Kella (1974), Joi Baba Felunath (1978), Hirok Rajar Deshe (1980), Ghare Baire (1984), Ganashatru (1989) and Shakha Proshaka (1990).

Apart from Ray Soumitra Chatterjee also starred in films like Kino Goalar Goli woith Sharmila Tagore, Akash Kusum (1965) with Aparna Sen, Kshudista Pashan (1960), Swaralipi (1961), Saat Pake Bandha (1963) with Suchitra Sen, Baksha Badal (1965) with Aparna Sen, Prathom Kadam Phool (1970), Sansar Simantey (1975), Basanta Bilap with Aparna Sen, Chhutir Phaande again with Aparna Sen and Utpal Dutt, Teen Bhubaner Paare with Tanuja, Parineeta with Moushami, Devdas with Sumitra Mukherjee and many others.

Soumitra Chatterjee is still active today and has worked with some of the most talented directors from the crop of new Bengali directors. With age he gracefully opted for character roles in films like Koni (1984), Wheelchair (1994) and Sopan (1994). Goutam Ghosh, Aparna Sen, Anjan Das and Rituporno Ghosh are some of popular directors with whom this veteran actor has worked. With Goutam Ghosh he teamed up and made films like Dekha (2001) and Aabar Aranaye (2003). The latter is a sequel to Ray`s Aranyer din Ratri. Another notable film of Soumitra Chatterjee will be Anjan Das`s Saanjhbatir Roopkathara (2002). His costar in this film was Indrani Halder. Soumitra was felicitated with National Award in the Best actor category for his role in Poddokhep in 2008. The film is directed by Goutam Ghosh.

It would be wrong to restraint Soumitra Chatterjee`s histrionic skills to the silver screen. He has always been a theatre personality. He had been associated with plays like Rajkumar (1982), Phera (1987), Nilkantha (1988), Ghatak Biday (1990) and Nyaymurti (1996). Apart from being an outstanding actor Soumitra Chatterjee is also renowned for his poetry reading. In fact he has written several plays, translated several of them and has also published Swagato. It is a compilation of articles on acting, cinema and theatre.

Soumitra Chatterjee has received several awards for his contribution to Indian cinema. He is the recipient of Padma Bhushan, Officier des Arts et Metiers from the French government and others.