Soumitra Chatterjee at his Golf Green residence. Pix by Rashbehari Das

He’s the golden oldie of the Calcutta movie industry. But even at 73 when most actors are in relaxed retirement, Soumitra Chatterjee is working 12-hour days, dashing from movie sets to the stage.

Chatterjee — who will always be best known as Satyajit Ray’s Apu — is in no mood to quit. He has, over the decades, acted in over 300 films. Now he’s doing an energetic combination of films, theatre, radio and even television.

He’s about to come together with his old comrade-in-arms, Sharmila Tagore (they first appeared together in 1959 in Ray’s Apur Sansar), in a film being made by London-based film-maker Sangeeta Dutta for which shooting is scheduled to commence by next year.

Before that he’s scheduled to travel to Britain in a month or two to shoot for Amit Ranjan Biswas’s film Ithaca, being made in Bengali and English. The film revolves around a father and daughter and their search for roots. “I play a doctor in this film and it’s going to be a sensitive role. We will shoot in November or December since the director wants snow in some of the shots,” he says.

Theatre has always been Chatterjee’s first love and it’s still keeping him busy. He’s currently playing the lead role in the Bengali version of Mahesh Elkunchwar’s Atmakatha. The play revolves around an ageing novelist who is dictating his life story to a young researcher.

The actor at an outdoor location during the shooting of Goutam Ghose’s film, Abar Aranye

Says Chatterjee: “After reading the script last year, I said I wanted to act in the play. All the characters in the play have a different perspective on truth and the result is great drama.” The play’s currently running to full houses in a south Calcutta theatre.

If that’s not enough, he’s also planning to do plays like Pran Tapasya and Kurbani which he has scripted and directed, and will also be acting in. In Pran Tapasya, he plays an author whose wife has slipped into coma and who tries desperately to save her life.

On a Sunday morning you can also hear his voice wafting in on the radio — he’s hosts a two-hour Bengali show where he talks about the good old days and also throws in stories about incidents in Tagore’s life, the situations in which his songs were composed, and then plays music. Chatterjee is an old radio hand and started his career as an announcer on All India Radio.

The actor who works between 10 and 12 hours every day is also shooting for a television soap, Shanai. “I do it only because it gives me practise and cash,” he says without mincing his words.

So why does he work so hard at an age when most people choose to take it easy? “I didn’t earn much from Ray’s films,” he confesses. Chatterjee was, as most people know, Ray’s favourite actor. In fact, Ray’s son Sandip calls him his father’s “12th man”.

(From top) Soumitra and Supriya share a laugh during the shooting of a television serial; A still from Satyajit Ray’s Ghare Baire; Soumitra with Ray and Biplab Chatterjee

He starred in 14 Ray features and his co-stars often said that he and Ray were inseparable. “I’m going to hypnotise Ray and ask him once why he casts you all the time”, a colleague once joked.

But the reasons aren’t tough to figure out. Other directors like Goutam Ghose (they worked together in Dekha) praise him unreservedly.

Says Ghose: “You simply fall in love with someone like Soumitra. He reacts to everything and he’s such a gentleman. He has no airs at all and he does his homework.”

Chatterjee was famous for being a Ray protégé but he also worked with a string of other top directors like Tapan Sinha, Ajoy Kar, Mrinal Sen, Tarun Mazumder. More recently he has teamed up with others like Rituparno Ghosh, Goutam Ghose and Aparna Sen.

Why didn’t he try his hand at Bollywood? “When we grew up, we believed that money was a dirty word, so Bollywood never beckoned. I had enough work here. Also, I believed that my essential strength lay in my language power and I never felt easy speaking Hindi,” he says. He did, however, work in the French film La Nuit Bengali directed by Nicholas Klotz and Shadows of Time by Florian Gallenberger.

Inevitably, he exercises regularly to ensure that he stays in trim. “I spend more than an hour everyday. I walk, practise Yoga and free-hand exercises every morning. There is no other way,” says Chatterjee, who quit smoking a few months ago after suffering a minor heart ailment.

Also, he leads a firmly regimented life. After starting out with a light breakfast, he goes off to work which ranges from shooting for serials and films, rehearsing plays to attending cultural events. Now the actor’s Sundays have also become busy, because of the radio show.

So is Soumitra the actor satisfied with what he’s got? There is a frown and he looks a bit tired suddenly. “The national award has come (for Podokkhep) but it hardly makes a difference to me at this stage. I accepted it only because it pleases my fans. But I hope the best is yet to come,” he said, readying himself for yet another busy Sunday.

Sandip Ray on Soumitra

Dad and Soumitrakaku shared a close relationship for about 50 years. The professional bond spilled over to a friendship which thrived till dad’s death in 1992. But dad was a fair man. He didn’t give the lead role to Soumitra but to Uttam Kumar in Nayak. Soumitra was also not his first choice for Feluda in Sonar Kella. But then, he played the role perfectly.

He was excellent in my film, Nishijapon. Also, in Ghare Baire, he surpassed himself in the role of Nikhilesh. By then, he was not petrified of Ray and my father had a warm sense of affection for him.

In fact, when I did my Feluda series and took Sabyasachi as Pradosh Mitter, I called him up to tell him. “Sabyasachi is just right for the new role. Besides I’m now old enough to be Felujethu,” he quipped.

Soumitrakaku is family to us now. He comes on every occasion even today, like he used to when dad was around. My favourite Soumitra films? Apur Sansar and Asani Sanket, where he played a serious role so well. I am a complete fan of his.