‘At times, I feel that he was a child at heart’

I can’t believe I have to talk about Rituparno Ghosh in the past tense. He was always brimming with ideas, concepts, so much in love with his job and a penchant for perfection, so full of life that you can’t believe that he is no longer with us. More than anything else, it’s a personal loss for me, writes Prosenjit Chatterjee.

I can’t believe I have to talk about Rituparno Ghosh in the past tense. He was always brimming with ideas, concepts, so much in love with his job and a penchant for perfection, so full of life that you can’t believe that he is no longer with us. More than anything else, it’s a personal loss for me.

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He has been a friend and my biggest sounding board. I’ve never had so many arguments with anyone else, and all of it in the best spirit. No malice. We shared a lot of concepts, had long conversations on life and shades of human emotions.

We have both been dubbed workaholics. Every time we discussed a character, something new would come up. He was an ocean of creativity. Cinema will not be the same without Ritu Da.

As a person he would always be there for everyone. I had told my wife (Arpita Chatterjee) once that if you get stuck with something you could just close your eyes and run to Ritu-da. My wife was just shooting with him last week.

I must say he was a little careless about his health. He had high diabetes but would not adhere to dietary restrictions. At times, I feel he was a child at heart. I’ve known him since he was creative director at an advertising agency. Our first film was Unishe April. There was no looking back. I have worked in nine films with Ritu-da.

There was so much more to do, a lot of unfinished business. He brought out the best in me: I bagged the national award for Dosar. With so many films together, we developed a comfort level: we effortlessly got each other. I have lost a fierce friend.

(Prosenjit Chatterjee is the Bengali film industry’s most prominent leading man. He has worked in over 300 movies)