Soumitra Chatterjee's Tryst with Destiny

The encounter that led a budding actor to a legendary filmmaker, and sparked an iconic creative partnership during the golden age of Bengali cinema

- BY Sanghamitra Chakraborty

NITYANANDA DUTTA, SATYAJIT RAY'S assistant, was waiting on the pavement across the street from Soumitra Chatterjee's house. Once they got past the pleasantries, Netai, as he was called by Ray's unit, came straight to the point: Mr Ray was planning to start filming Aparajito (The Unvanquished), the sequel to Pather Panchali (Song of the Road) [the film adaptation of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's acclaimed novel by the same name], and had launched a hunt for an actor to play Apu. Would Soumitra be willing to come along to see Ray for that role?

Next, Soumitra was on a bus with Ray's assistant to his home in south Calcutta. On the bus, Netai sized him up with a piercing gaze. Soumitra had started wearing glasses at the time. Midway, Netai asked him to get rid of them.

Ray was seated in his room in his signature white kurta pajama when Soumitra arrived at his Lake Avenue flat. "The moment I entered, he said, 'Oh dear, you've turned out to be much too tall.' Restraining himself immediately, he added, 'Please come in, take a seat.' I was shaken. How engrossed he must have been in his work to be able to say something like this. It only meant that he was looking for Apu everywhere, all the time.”

At five feet eleven, Soumitra looked considerably older than Smaran Ghoshal, whom Ray eventually cast in Apu’s role in