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Veteran Bengali actress Supriya Devi, who acted in Meghe Dhaka Tara and Basu Parivar, dead
Supriya Devi’s last film was the internationally acclaimed The Namesake, which starred Tabu and Irrfan Khan.
Veteran Bengali film actress Supriya Devi died at her South Kolkata residence on Friday following a massive heart attack, family sources said. She was 85.
Supriya Devi is survived by her daughter. “She felt unwell around 6.20 a.m. She was in the bathroom then. When doctors were called, they declared her dead,” sources said.
Born on January 8, 1933, in Mitkina in erstwhile Burma (now Myanmar), Supriya Devi was one of the leading figures of the golden era of Bengali cinema that saw her straddle the screen space with great aplomb alongside the late Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen.
Soumitra Chatterjee and Sabitri Chatterjee now remain the few surviving representatives of that generation.
Among her iconic films are her debut Basu Parivar and Ritwik Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara. She acted in around 45 Bengali movies. Her last film was the internationally acclaimed The Namesake, which starred Tabu and Irrfan Khan.
Supriya Devi briefly retired from films before marrying Bishwanath Choudhury in 1954, and returning to movies in the late 1950s. She subsequently lived with Uttam Kumar.
She was awarded the Padma Shree and the Banga-Vibhushan award — the highest civilian honour in West Bengal.
