Soumitra Chatterjee’s funeral: Mamata Banerjee in Rabindra Sadan. (courtesy AND ME)
Highlight
- Soumitra Chatterjee died Sunday afternoon.
- He died at the Belle Vue Clinic in Kolkata, where he was admitted from Octobe
- His funeral was held at the Keoratala Crematorium.
New Delhi:
Soumitra Chatterjee, one of the best actors in the Bengali film industry, died on Sunday afternoon in Kolkata. The 85-year-old actor died 40 days after being admitted to Kolkata’s Belle Vue Clinic with COVID-19. His funeral was held at the Keoratala Crematorium in Calcutta on Sunday night with all the honors of the police. He was honored with a pistol salute by the Kolkata police. West Bengal’s chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, who was also in hospital this morning to be with the actor’s family after his death, attended the funeral. Also present were various film personalities from the Bengali film industry. The last rites of Soumitra Chatterjee were preceded by a funeral procession from Rabindra Sadan to the Keoratala Crematorium, attended by hundreds of fans, Bengali film celebrities and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
After his death, Mr. Chatterjee’s body was transferred from the hospital to his residence in Golf Green and then to the Technician Studio in Tollygunge. In the afternoon, Soumitra Chatterjee’s body was taken to Rabindra Sadan, a center of Bengali cinema, where numerous fans paid their last respects.
At Soumitra Chatterjee’s funeral procession, artists and celebrities paid tribute to the late actor by reciting poems composed by him and singing Rabindra Sangeet, creating a sad but surreal atmosphere.
Soumitra Chatterjee was admitted to the Belle Vue Clinic on October 6, a day after he was diagnosed with COVID-19. The actor tested negative a bit after a week on October 14, but his health deteriorated after that. He was put on various life support systems this week after he stopped responding to treatment. “Soumitra Chatterjee is unresponsive to treatment. Even miracles can fall short in this situation,” a doctor treating the actor at the hospital said in a medical bulletin on Saturday.
On Sunday, an official statement regarding her death read: “We declare with regret that Shri Soumitra Chattopadhyay breathed her last at 12-15pm at the Belle Vue Clinic today (November 15, 2020). We pay our tribute to her soul.” .
Soumitra Chatterjee, in his six-decade film career, worked on critically acclaimed Bengali films and collaborated with iconic filmmaker Satyajit Ray 14 times for such films as Apur Sansar, Charulata, Devi, Teen Kanya, Ghare BaireY Ganashatru. He was best known for playing the roles of Apu in Apur Sansar and Feluda in the Satyajit Ray movies Sonar Kella Y Joy Baba Felunath. Soumitra Chatterjee was also directed by other greats of Bengali cinema, including Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha, Ajoy Kar. His last big-screen release was in 2019. Sanjhbati.
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