During her teenage, she was immensely influenced by the beauty and stature of the veteran actresses like
Chandrabati Devi and
Kanan Devi and aspired to be an actress. Her letter was answered and she was summoned for an interview and look test. At the office of
New Theatres, she was asked to read lines from
Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay's
Ganadevata and she mesmerized everyone present there with her beauty as well as her lucid, euphonic voice. She was chosen for the leading role opposite
K. L. Saigal in
New Theatres's
Meri Bahen (1944). Though
Meri Bahen was supposed to be the debut film of Sumitra Devi, she finally made her debut with Apurba Mitra's bilingual film
Sandhi (1944), which became a major financial success. There are different speculations regarding how she attained her role in
Sandhi (1944).
Anandalok wrote that she was stalled on her way to the shooting floor of
Meri Bahen, by Apurba Mitra who offered her to act in his directorial venture. Cineplot claimed that it was actually Sumitra Devi herself who proposed
Debaki Bose to act in his film and it was
Bose who finally cast her in his nephew Apurba Mitra's directorial venture. According to the source, Bose wanted to enquire whether she had her father's consent to step into filmdom. She confessed that she did not have and her father was too conservative to provide his consent to this. As Bose was keen to cast her, he requested
B. N. Sircar to persuade her father, Murali Chattopadhyay to give his consent. As B. N. Sircar was the son of Sir M. N. Sirkar, an eminent advocate and a close friend to Murali Chattopadhyay, he finally yielded to Sircar's imploration and reluctantly gave his consent. The film won her the
Bengal Film Journalists' Association - Best Actress Award in 1945.
Meri Bahen (1944) achieved remarkable success upon release. It became the fourth highest-grossing film of the year. Sumitra featured in Soumyen Mukhopadhyay's Hindi film W
asiyatnama (1945) which was originally an adaptation of veteran Bengali author
Bamkim Chandra Chattopadhyay's famous novel
Krishnakanter Will. Her next big turn was Satish Dasgupta and Digambar Chattopadhay's directorial venture
Pather Dabi (1947) which was an adaptation of the renowned Bengali author
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel of the
same name and also starred Debi Mukherjee in lead. The film was a massive success at box office as its content dealt with the various aspects of contemporary Indian freedom movement. She delineated the character of a Prafulla who is abandoned by her clink, gets kidnapped by some ruffians but manages to escape and hides herself in a lone forest where she meets a person who trains her as the leading figure of his gang of robbers. Indian columnist
Rinki Bhattacharya appreciated her performance. The film was a major success at box office. In 1950, she appeared in Nitin Bose's Hindi film
Mashaal, which is based on
Rajani, a famous Bengali novel by the veteran author
Bankim Chandra Chottopadhyay. She played the character of Tarangini who is in love with the character of Samar, played by
Ashok Kumar, but is compelled by her father to marry a wealthy landlord. The film achieved critical as well as commercial success. The year 1952 saw four of her
Bollywood releases
Deewana,
Ghunghroo,
Mamta,
Raja Harischandra.
Deewana and
Ghunghroo received remarkable success at box office. and
Delhi Darbar (1956), to name a few. In 1955, she appeared in Ardhendu Mukhopadhyay's Bengali film
Dasyu Mohan, which became a huge hit at the box office. In 1956, she appeared in Pinaki Mukhopadhyay's Bengali film
Asabarna (1956) and Kartik Chattopadhyay's blockbuster
Saheb Bibi Golam (1956), which is an adaptation of
Bimal Mitra's classic novel of the same name. She plays the character of a beautiful, alcoholic wife of an aristocrat, who forms a loving yet platonic relationship with the protagonist Bhootnath. She has been most remembered for her role in this film. Director Kartik Chattopadhyay was keen to cast her in the role of the beautiful, eeyorish mistress of the junior landlord, but felt on edge at the same time as he thought that she might be repulsed by this role as it mirrored her conjugal life to some extent. He found his breath when Sumitra Devi gave her consent. The film was released on 9 March 1956 and turned out as a massive hit at the box office. In 1957, she appeared in Kartik Chattopadhyay's another blockbuster
Nilachaley Mahaprabhu. She was further adulated for her role as a
nautch girl in Haridas Bhattacharya's
National Award winning film
Aandhare Alo (1957). In 1958, she was paired with
Uttam Kumar in Jiban Gangopadhgay's ambitious venture
Joutuk. Sumitra Devi's reign began to slow down in the sixties. In 1964, she rendered the character of
Draupadi in Chandrakant Gor's Hindi film
Veer Bhimsen. In O. C. Gangopadhyay's
Kinu Gowalar Gali (1964), she enacted the role of Shanti who is desperate to win back her husband's love for her. Her performance in the film won critical favour. == Personal life ==