[3] Chatterjee's Brecht productions were rarely adapted to a local setting, and while critics unanimously praised this approach as "authentic", his colleague Dutt attacked it for failing to communicate Brecht's political symbolism to an Indian audience.
[4] Chatterjee was also active in Bengali, Indian and world cinema, having acted in nearly a hundred films by the time he was sixty.
[3][1] His biggest international role was that of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in Richard Attenborough's biographical epic Gandhi.
Casting director Dolly Thakore recommended Chatterjee for the role after seeing him onstage in Calcutta and noting that he shared Suhrawardy's large stature.
The Directorate of Film Festivals cited it for "its sincere attempt to depict the struggle against social injustice".