Did you know Soumitra Chatterjee once sent an apology letter to Tapan Sinha?

In a career spanning more than six decades, Soumitra Chatterjee had the glorious opportunity to work with almost all the acclaimed directors in Bengali cinema. He had always said that Satyajit Ray and Tapan Sinha were the two directors who always offered challenging roles and managed to bring out the best in him.

While reminiscing about his long association with the master filmmaker Tapan Sinha, Soumitra Chatterjee once shared with us an interesting story from the early days of his career. “During the shoot of ‘

Wheelchair

’ in 1994, a scene had to be shot a number of times as I wasn’t delivering the lines properly. The next day, when I came to the set I gave a handwritten apology letter to director Tapan Sinha and admitted my mistake. I couldn’t concentrate on the scene. Tapan Sinha was really moved by my gesture and later used to tell people in the industry that in his entire filmmaking career, no actor ever shown such a humble gesture. He even told me there’s no such need to reshoot the particular scene. He took a satisfactory shot from whatever was shot,” revealed the thespian.

Soumitra Chatterjee who passed away recently also said being a professional actor it was always his responsibility to deliver the perfect shot till the director is satisfied. “I urged Tapan Sinha to let me try one more time and the shot was finally approved after 2-3 takes.”