[5][6] She was catapulted to stardom after she was cast as Vishnupriya by Devaki Kumar Bose in his Bhagaban Shree Krishna Chaitanya (1953).

[13] Suchitra Sen was born on 6 April 1931, in a Bengali family[14] of Bhanga Bari village of Belkuchi Thana in Bengal Province of British India (now in Sirajganj District, Bangladesh).

[15][16][17] Her father, Korunamoy Dasgupta, was a Sanitary Inspector of Pabna Municipality and her mother, Indira Devi, was a homemaker.

She was a granddaughter of the poet Rajanikanta Sen.[18] She received her formal education in Pabna Government Girls High School.

According to persistent but unconfirmed reports in the Bengali press, her marriage was strained by her success in the film industry.

[25] The following year saw her act opposite Uttam Kumar in Sharey Chuattor, a film by Nirmal Dey.

She played in a character named Radha Mitra, a hospital nurse employed by a progressive psychiatrist, Pahadi Sanyal, who is expected to develop a personal relationship with male patients as part of their therapy.

She finally agrees and bears up to Choudhury's violence, impersonates his mother, sings his poetic compositions and in the process falls in love again.

Critics note that she brought a great deal of poise, grace and dignity to the role of a fallen woman determined to see her daughter grow up in a good, clean environment.

[35][36] A film critic Saibal Chatterjee summed up Suchitra Sen's career and continuing legacy as "one half of one of Indian cinema's most popular and abiding screen pairs, Suchitra Sen redefined stardom in a way that few actors have done, combining understated sensuality, feminine charm and emotive force and a no-nonsense gravitas to carve out a persona that has never been matched, let alone surpassed in Indian cinema".

As a result, Ray never made the film Devi Chaudhurani, based on the novel written by Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.

[38] Sen continued to act after her husband's death in 1970, but called it a day when Pronoy Pasha flopped,[39] and retired from the screen in 1978 after a career of over 25 years to a life of quiet seclusion.

Despite being Bengal's greatest star, referred to as "Mahanayika", she had consciously chosen to step into oblivion and she remained an enigma till her last, although thousands of fans had converged at the crematorium to catch one last glimpse of their idol.