Soumitra studied at the Scottish Church College of the University of Calcutta, graduating with honours in Bengali literature. He has lived for a number of years in Calcutta in Satyajit Ray's old apartment. He also passed the M.A. examination in Bengali from the University of Calcutta. He worked in All India Radio before pursuing a career in films.
Soumitra's film debut came in 1959 in Satyajit Ray's Apur Sansar. As noted on the official website for Ray, "At that time, Soumitra Chatterjee was a radio announcer and had only played a small role in a Bengali stage production" [1]. Soumitra would eventually collaborate with Ray on fourteen films. His centrality to Ray's work is akin to other key collaborations in the history of cinema - Mifune & Kurosawa, Mastroianni & Fellini, De Niro & Scorsese, Dicaprio & Scorsese, Max von Sydow and Ingmar Bergman, Jerzy Stuhr and Kieślowski . He also worked with Sharmila Tagore in a number of Ray films.
Besides working with Ray, Soumitra excelled in collaborations with other well-known Bengali directors such as Mrinal Sen and Tapan Sinha. He earned critical acclaim for his role of an impostor in Mrinal Sen's Akash Kusum, whereas he was equally confident in playing the swashbuckling horse-rding villain in Sinha's 'Jhinder Bandi' giving the legendary Uttam Kumar a tough challenge.Again in 'Teen Bhubaner Pare',he shared the screen with the beautiful Tanuja,and his flamboyant and peppy way of teasing and wooing Tanuja in the very first song-sequence('Ke Tumi Nadini')overnight earned him the 'star' tag along with Uttam Kumar. He acted with great aplomb with the iconic Suchitra Sen in Saat Pake Bandha.He did couple of movies with Uttam Kumar such as 'Stri','Devdas','Protisodh'.His comic timing was brilliant and highly appreciated in 'Mantramughdha','Basanto Bilap','Chutir Fande' and in 'Baksho Badal',the last one was a fine example of witty comedy written by Satyajit Ray. In the later years of his film career, he kept "wow"ing his audience with memorable performances in films such as 'Koni','Atanko'etc. Soumitra is known for his experimentation with different roles. He played the role of Shekhar in the 1969 Ajoy Kar version of Parineeta. Soumitra has also been active in Bengali theatre as an actor, play wright and director. He is a well-known poetry reciter, and has acted on TV and in indigenous folk drama (jatra).
A living legend on his own terms, Soumitra has received the 'Officier des Arts et Metiers', the highest award for arts given by the French government, and a lifetime achievement award from Italy. He turned down the honorary Padma Shri award from the Indian government in the seventies; more recently, in 2004, he accepted the prestigious Padma Bhushan award from the President of India. He has been the subject of a full-length documentary named Gaach by French director Catherine Berge.
In a gesture of protest against the National Film Awards committee's bias in awarding popular and mainstream cinema, he turned down the 2001 special jury award for best actor. However, on 9 June 2008, he was selected for the 2007 National Film Award for Best Actor by the Government of India.
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