Soumitra Chatterjee: His Life in Cinema and Beyond

When Soumitra Chatterjee debuted in Satyajit Ray’s Apur Sansar in 1959—the final part of Ray’s Apu trilogy—a star was born in Bengali cinema. Soumitra soon transcended the boundaries of the Bengali film industry to become an internationally celebrated actor who was compared to the best in the business, from Max von Sydow to Marcello Mastroianni. Famously known as ‘Ray’s actor’, in a career spanning six decades, Soumitra worked with practically every Bengali director worth the name— Mrinal S...