Shabana Azmi had the rare privilege of playing both wife and daughter to Soumitra Chatterjee. “But then he had the rarest privilege of doing fourteen films with Satyajit Ray. I was in a film group that was honoured at the prestigious George Pompidou Centre in Paris sometime in the 1980s and it was so incredible to watch the adulation showered on him by French fans. In Paris, they called out to him as Apu (from Satyajit Ray’s Apur Sansar) and Amal (from Ray’s Charulata) and rushed to get photographed with him. Soumitrada seemed to to take it all in his stride and said modestly, ‘It’s because Ray made these characters so memorable that I’m reaping the benefits.’ I was amazed at how lightly he wore his fame.”
Recalling her own experiences of collaborating with Soumitrada as a co-actor Shabana says, “I had the honour of working with him as his wife in Nicholas Klotz’s film La Nuit Bengali co-starring distinguished British actors Hugh Grant and John Hurt. Much later I played his daughter in Aparna Sen’s 15 Park Avenue. He was charming and great company to be around because he was well-read and could speak on many subjects.”
