Indian acting legend, Soumitra Chatterjee, 85, died on November 15, 2020, after testing positive for the coronavirus. He was an accomplished playwright, theatre actor, and poet, and was perhaps best-known for his work Apu Trilogy, consisting of three Indian Bengali language films—Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956), and The World of Apu (1959).
Work His acting career began while he was in school and he went on to star morethan 300 films. He was aversatile actor, who played a Sherlock Holmes-like detective in Sonar Kella, an effete bridegroom in Devi, a hot-tempered north Indian taxi driver in Abhijan, a city sliker in Aranyer Din Ratri, and a mild-mannered village priest in Ashani Sanket. He also played Rabindranath Tagore in Charulata, which was a ‘thinly veiled portrait’ of Tagore. Ghatak Bidey was one of his most successful plays, which ran for 500 night. He also acted in a commercially successful Bengali adaption of King Lear, which is believed to be one of his finest performances on statge. Overall, he starred in more than 300 movies. As per America’s most influential and respected film critic, Pauline Kael, he was ‘one-man stock company’ who moved ‘so differently in the different roles he played that he was almost unrecognisable.
Achievements Chatterjee was awarded with France’s highest award, the Legion of Honour in 2018. He was awarded the highest honour in Indian Cinema, Dada Saheb Phalke Award in 2012; Filmfare Awards in 1995; Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011; Best Actor Award in 2000; Special Jury Award in 1974 and 1991; and Best Feature Film in Bengali in 1973.