'Soumitra Chatterjee or Soumitra Chattopadhyay was an Indian film actor. He was best known for his collaborations with Oscar-winning film director Satyajit Ray, with whom he worked in fourteen films. Soumitra Chattopadhyay was also the first Indian film personality conferred with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France's highest award for artists. He was also the winner of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award which is India's highest award for cinema. In 2017 exactly thirty years after auteur Satyajit Ray was honoured with France's highest civilian award, the coveted Legion of Honor, thespian Soumitra Chatterjee, arguably, the most prominent face of Ray's films, also received the prestigious award. He was the seventh recipient of this award.