A recitation of Sukumar Ray’s Abol Tabol for a four-episode animation series was Soumitra Chatterjee’s last professional assignment.

For the project, the thespian re-read the entire collection of 53 rhymes over and over again, till a point where he could recite every line without seeing the book, said his collaborators. Chattopadhyay would also insist on retakes even if he had the slightest hesitation about a line, or even a punctuation.

“He used to come to the studio, have a cup of tea, take puffs from his inhaler and ready he was,” said Rajib Mukherjee, the owner of the studio in Golf Green where the series was shot over two days in the third week of September.

Since the past four-five years, a bulk of Chattopadhyay’s audio-recordings were done at the studio, very close to his home.

“We had a meeting with him on the project in the middle of September. He readily agreed to recite the poems,” said restaurateur and communications consultant Shiladitya Chaudhury, who has directed the series for his YouTube channel.

The series has been divided into four episodes. The first episode was released on Saturday, to celebrate Children’s Day. By Sunday afternoon, it had been viewed close to 3,000 times.

The first episode sees Chattopadhyay clad in a red kurta, seated on a chair and reading from the book. A table clock and some books on a table make up the props.

Shiladitya Chaudhury with Soumitra Chatterjee at the Golf Green studio Sourced by The Telegraph

“He must have read Abol Tabol at least 50 times for the project. By the time of the first recording, he could tell every line without looking at the book. His erudition and his grasp of language are there for everyone to see. But at 85, his detailed approach to and voracious appetite for work were unmatched,” said Chaudhury, who did the music of a Bengali film a few years ago before his new directorial venture.

Mukherjee, the sound recordist, echoed Chaudhury.

“He would shoot and then see it on the monitor. He would insist on a retake even if he had a niggle about a small pause in between two lines,” said Mukherjee.

Chattopadhyay had started re-reading letters of Rabindranath Tagore and wanted to record the readings at his studio, said Mukherjee.

Chaudhury, who had known Chattopadhyay for decades, recalled the many “adda sessions” in the run-up to the project.

Different facets of Chattopadhyay — like the foodie and wildlife enthusiast in him — came out in the sessions, he said. One of the days, Chaudhuri had got some grilled fish packed for him. “He talked of his love for continental food, of times spent at Sky Room when Calcutta was famous for its nightlife and merriment,” said Chaudhury.

Chaudhury and Chattopadhyay also bonded over a common passion — forests and wildlife. Chattopadhyay had written a letter in Bengali to Chaudhury after seeing some of the latter’s wildlife photography.

“I have loved forests since I was a kid. But such is the demand of life that forest trips have stopped happening now…. Man is not the sole owner of this planet. If he does not respect the animal kingdom… man will one day be exiled from this world,” reads the letter, dated September 27, little over a week before he was hospitalised.