As a qualified engineer, Chatterjee had a job in Rajasthan, following which he came back to Kolkata and joined Sandesh, the Bengali magazine revived by Satyajit Ray. He started his career in the advertisement department of the children's magazine Sandesh. Ray cast him in a cameo in Mahanagar and then famously as the singer Goopy Gyne in Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne. The song Aaha Ki Aananda Aakshe Batashe filmed on him Goopy and Rabi Ghosh as Bagha Byne still stirs the memory of the Bengali film lovers.