On a visit to Mumbai, the legendary Soumitra Chatterjee, spoke about his experiences of working with Satyajit Ray, friendship with Shashi Kapoor and why he stayed away from Hindi movies
Sreeparna Sengupta (BOMBAY TIMES; April 24, 2019)

For Soumitra Chatterjee, whose prolific career spanning over six decades, saw him as the most enduring face of Oscar winning master filmmaker, Satyajit Ray’s movies, it is his immense work in field of theatre, that has found him in the city of Mumbai time and again. However, Hindi movies have never been a lure for this legendary Indian actor.

Recently, a captive audience at the packed Nehru Center auditorium, soaked in the aura of the 86-year-old thespian at a cultural programme, organised by South Mumbai’s oldest Tagore music school. Later, over a more relaxed one-on-one conversation, he lets on, “Poetry has been very dear to me from an early age. That’s a legacy of my parents. It was my father who gave me the idea of doing poetry recitals. And my mother unconsciously sowed the plant for the love of poetry that I have.”

The actor’s love for theatre also developed at a very young age, much before the arc lights took over. In fact, it was theatre and the common love for world cinema that saw a friendship develop between late actor Shashi Kapoor and him, “Shashi was also into theatre from the very beginning. And although he had to bend and mend his ways for the Hindi film industry, he was always aware of what was happening in theatre and cinema around the world. Later, as a producer, Shashi produced some remarkable films.”

When probed on a black-and-white photograph of the two dapper actors in their hey days, which he had shared on social media, he says, “That was taken in Berlinale. We had become friends since the time we did films like, Charulata and Shakespeare Wallah. Both the films were shown in Berlin in 1965. So, the photograph that you are referring to was taken then. And as far as I remember, it was shot by none other than Satyajit Ray. Both of us were very young at that time and Shashi was the ever-handsome, charming and witty person,” adds the actor, who was no less a heartthrob of Bengali cinema then. Incidentally, both their films won top awards at the Berlin film festival, that year.

‘Balraj Sahni is the best that Indian cinema has seen’
Given his association with the Hindi film industry, ask him why he has never been seen in a Hindi film, like some of his contemporaries — Suchitra Sen, Sharmila Tagore and Uttam Kumar, he says, “Frankly, I was not keen on doing Hindi films. For the single reason, that the kind of films I started liking were those of filmmakers like Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini or other new-age filmmakers that opened windows for the kind of films that I wanted to do. Although from an early age, I used to see many Hindi films. And actors like Dilip Kumar Saab and also, Raj Kapoor to an extent, were favourites of mine. But the more I think about an sub-conscious influence on me, only one name comes to my mind — Balraj Sahni. He is the best that Indian cinema has seen and I still adore him as my idol.”

‘I don’t know why Satyajit Ray liked me’
Introduced to cinema lovers the world over as Apu of Apur Sansar on May 1, 1959, he has vivid memories of his first day at shoot with Satyajit Ray (it was his 27th death anniversary on April 23). Reflecting on his first meeting with the maestro, he says, “I was initially taken for an interview with Mr. Ray when he was looking for someone to play Apu for the second part of the Apu trilogy. But I was too grown up and tall for the adolescent Apu. And I wasn’t selected. But much later, after I had been working with him for two-three years, I came to know that he had made up his mind to make the third part of the trilogy, after he saw me. Over time, as we collaborated more, we developed a rapport and he started giving me a lot of freedom into the way I wanted to do a role. It was exciting to shoot with him.” Pausing to reflect, his voice trails off with a shy questioning laugh, “...And I don’t know why he liked me.”

‘Ray used to draw sketches of the make-up and look before actually going into the shoot’
When the conversation steers to Charulata, his voice swells with pride, “That was a great film. Satyajit Ray always felt that was his most perfect film. In fact, as a student of Bengali Honours, I knew the original story, Noshto Nir extremely well. It was one of the greatest stories written by Tagore. Ray used to draw sketches of the make-up and look before actually going into the shoot. He did that for Charulata as well and sent me a table piano, long before the shooting started. I would practice on it as it was necessary to do that for shooting a song in the film,

‘Every conversation with Ray was a learning’
Chatterjee’s collaboration with Ray spanned across 14 films, including masterpieces like Aranyer Din Ratri, Devi, Ghare Baire, Ashani Sanket among others, showcasing the actor as one of the most versatile in Indian cinema.

“Every conversation with Ray was a learning. He was my mentor, a kind of teacher, but unobtrusively so. He always behaved like a friend, more like an elder friend. And even today he has remained an inspiration,” signs off the legend, who has worked with filmmakers like Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha, Goutam Ghose, Rituparno Ghosh. His most recent works include films like Shonar Pahar, Mayurakshi, Basu Poribar in which he was cast with Aparna Sen after 19 long years.