Soumitra Chatterjee, the iconic Indian actor known for his collaborations with Oscar-winning director Satyajit Ray, died from complications of coronavirus on Sunday. He was 85.
Chatterjee died in Kolkata, where he had been hospitalized since October after he tested positive for COVID-19, according to his family.
Chatterjee’s career spanned six decades, with the actor appearing in over 300 Bengali-language movies. But he’s most known for his longtime partnership with Ray, appearing in 14 of the director’s works including 1959’s “Apur Sansar” (“The World of Apu”), the third in Ray’s internationally acclaimed “Apu Trilogy” about a Bengali youth’s coming of age.
The pair’s partnership lasted until Ray’s death in 1992.
“International, Indian and Bengali cinema has lost a giant,” tweeted Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal’s chief minister. “We will miss him dearly. The film world in Bengal has been orphaned.”
Chatterjee was also an accomplished playwright, theater actor, painter and poet. In 1999, he became the first India-born recipient of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France’s highest artistic honor. He also edited a literary magazine.
Chatterjee is survived by his wife and two children, a daughter and a son.
With News Wire Services
