Uttam Kumar debuted as Arun Kumar Chatterjee, a child artist, in the 1948 film Drishtidaan directed by Nitin Bose. The film was unsuccessful. The next year he appeared as a leading hero Uttam Chatterjee in the film Kamona 1949 which was also unsuccessful. In 1951 film Sahajatri he kept his name permanently as Uttam Kumar. But he gave back to back seven flop films and was stated as flop master general.^[1][2]

His first success was the 1952 film Basu Paribar directed by Nirmal Dey. Next year along with ttsame director, he worked with Suchitra Sen for the first time in Sharey Chuattor. The film became blockbuster and established him. He got his break in the 1954 film Agnipariksha of Agradoot's direction. He also playbacked in his film Nabajanma (1956). He produced six very successful bengali films from where he received four National Film Award. He also got success as director and composer. He directed three hit films like Sudhu Ekti Bachor, Bon Polashir Padabali and Kalankini Kankabati and composed superhit Kal Tumi Aleya. In 1966 he collaborated with Oscar winning director Satyajit Ray's in the iconic cult classic Nayak which gave him the international recognization. It is considered as one of the best films in his entire career and also in Bengali cinema history. He acted in 203 released films in total, PLOT no.5 (1981) released after his death, hindi , his last film in a main lead in which Uttam Kumar played the role of a serial killer who was bound to a wheel chair. The movie also includes stars like Amjad Khan playing a police officer along with Amol Palekar, Vidya Sinha & Sriram Lagoo. He received the BFJA Best Actor Award eight times.^[3] He became the first Indian actor to receive the National Award for Best Actor for his performance in Antony Firingee and Chiriyakhana (1967).^[4][5]

• Uttam Kumar filmography at IMDb