Photo tribute: Remembering Soumitra Chatterjee, one of Bengal's greatest stars

Iconic Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee died in Kolkata on Sunday. He breathed his last at 12:15 pm at Belle Vue Clinic today. He was 85.

He had been admitted in the hospital for almost 40 days due to COVID-19 complications. The actor tested positive for the virus in October, but gradually recovered. However, till then, COVID encephalopathy had set in and various other complications surfaced. Soumitra Chatterjee's health condition had worsened in the last couple of days and the doctors said he was not responding at all to treatment. 

Soumitra Chatterjee was one of the most Bengal's most popular stars, best-known for his collaborations with filmmaker Satyajit Ray. 

He was born in Calcutta, West Bengal, in the year 1935. Soumitra Chatterjee is survived by wife Deepa Chatterjee, son Sougata and daughter Poulami Bose.

Soumitra Chatterjee was best-known for his collaborations with filmmaker Satyajit Ray. He made his film debut in 1959 with Satyajit Ray's 'Apur Sansar'. The duo later collaborated for iconic projects such as 'Charulata', 'Devi', 'Teen Kanya' among others. Soumitra Chatterjee acted in 14 films of the maestro. 

(Image Courtesy: IANS/File)

Soumitra Chatterjee became synonymous with the detective character 'Feluda' created by Satyajit Ray. Though Feluda's first appearance was in a series of detective books written by the Oscar-winning film director. Later, the maestro decided to give it a celluloid format and Soumitra Chatterjee played the lead role in all the movies made by Satyajit Ray on Feluda.

(Image Courtesy: IANS/File)

An old photo of Soumitra Chatterjee with actress Sharmila Tagore at an event in Kolkata.

In a career spanning six decades, Chatterjee has acted in more than 300 films. Mentored by Oscar award-winning filmmaker Satyajit Ray, the thespian will go down in history as the last of the Mohicans of the golden era of Indian celluloid who along with Ray took Bengali cinema to the world.

(Image Courtesy: ANI/File)

Apart from his movies, Soumitra Chatterjee was also known as a noted stage actor, poet and reciter.

He was last seen in 2019's 'Sanjhbati'.

In 2012, Soumitra Chatterjee received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2004. He was also the first Indian film personality conferred with France's highest award for artists -- the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.