Initially, Sen was more interested in singing than in acting. In 1951, she auditioned as a playback singer, but was instead offered a role by director Sukumar Dasgupta. Dasgupta's assistant director Nitish Roy named her Suchitra by which name she went on to achieve celebrity status.
Her first film ‘Sesh Kothay' (1952) remained unfinished and ‘Sat Number Kayedi' with Samar Roy as the hero in 1953 was her first film to hit cinema houses.
That year three other films of hers were also released—Niren Lahiri's ‘Kajari', ‘Bhagaban Sri Krishna Chaitanya' and Nirmal Dey's ‘Sade Chuttar' opposite Uttam Kumar.
In 1954, ‘Agnipariksha' played to packed houses for a record 15 weeks and the Suchitra and Uttam were on their way to success.
The pair then had a string of runway successes due to their on-screen chemistry. But Suchitra's talent ensured the success of her films even without Uttam as her co-star.
‘Uttar Phalguni', ‘Sandhya Deeper Shikha', ‘Deep Jeley Jai', with Basanto Chowdhury and ‘Hospital' with Ashok Kumar, were also hits.
