His father was Shailendra Chattopadhyay and mother Manimala Devi. In 1953, he was admitted into Calcutta Medical College. In 1960, he completed his M.B.B.S. and became a doctor. He worked in Civil Defence and later joined Kolkata Municipal Corporation. He was involved with amateur theatre under the tutelage of Jnanesh Mukherjee, a stalwart of Bengali theatre and films, and started trying his luck on the silver screen. He was involved with the IPTA. The elder of his two sons is the Bengali actor Saswata Chatterjee and the other based in the USA.
Subhendu Chatterjee has 101 screen credits in a career dating back to 1965. Signature works include Satbhai, Chowdhury Paribar, The Red Door. Explore the interactive character relationship maps on each title page to trace how their roles connect across franchises.
