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Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee tests positive for Covid-19, hospitalised
Iconic Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee was admitted to a hospital in Kolkata after he was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Tuesday. The actor is known for his work in Bengali cinema and did multiple films with Satyajit Ray.
Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, health officials said. He has been admitted to a hospital in Kolkata.
The octogenarian actor was unwell and he tested positive for the infection on Tuesday morning, a senior health official said.“His samples were tested for Covid-19 on Monday and the reports came today,” he added.
Chatterjee, who was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke award for lifetime achievement in 2012, worked with late filmmaker Satyajit Ray for over three decades and did more than a dozen projects with him. As per reports, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee called to enquire after his health.
Making his debut in Ray’s masterpiece Apur Sansar (the world of Apu) - the third part of the Apu Trilogy - in 1959 - Chatterjee became the famed director’s favourite actor, playing lead roles in Ray’s masterpieces such as Sonar Kella, Charulata, Ghare Baire, Ashani Sanket, Devi, Abhijan, Aranyer Din Ratri and Ganashatru.
Some of his finest performances came in the role of detective Prodosh Mitter (Feluda) in Ray’s Sonar Kella and Joy Baba Felunath as also a school teacher fighting against a despot king in Hirok Rajar Deshe.
Chatterjee, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award from Italy, had turned down the Padma Shri award in the 1970s. In 2001, he refused the national award in protest against the National Film Awards committee’s ‘biased’ attitude. But later, in 2004, he received Padma Bhushan and in 2008 the National Award.
(With PTI inputs)
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