Rituparno dies of cardiac arrest at 49

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Rituparno Ghosh during the 60th National Film Awards function held in New Delhi recently—PTI

The resurgent Bengali cinema lost its pioneer — National Award-winning filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh on Monday. Ghosh died in his sleep following a cardiac arrest at his residence around 7.30 am. According to reports, Ghosh had been suffering from pancreatitis for a while now and was 49 years old when breathed his last.

As the news of his sudden demise spread, a pall of gloom descended upon the Tollywood industry.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee rushed to his residence, along with Cabinet colleagues — state industry minister Partha Chatterjee and state housing minister Arup Biswas. Former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee also expressed his condolences. At 3.30 pm, Ghosh’s body was taken to the cultural hub of Kolkata at Nandan for thousands of admirers to pay their last tribute. After that the hearse was taken to his work place at Technician Studio and later was cremated to Siriti Crematorium, where the late director was given guard of honour. Describing the director as unique in his creativity, Ms Banerjee said, “We are stunned. In his sudden demise, Bengal has lost an eminent filmmaker. It is a very sad day for us. Rituparno’s comparison is only Rituparno. Bengal has lost a golden man of golden era.”
Born in August 31, 1963, Ghosh was brought up in an atmosphere which shaped his future career, where he was greatly influenced by his father, documentary filmmaker Sunil Ghosh. He did his schooling from South Point and later pursued economics at Jadavpur University.
Among the personalities of the fraternity, National Award-winning actor Prosenjit Chatterjee and National award-winning director Goutam Ghosh were present throughout during his last journey.
Mr Ghosh said, “We are stunned. I am speechless, despite being much younger to me we were friends. We lost a versatile creative person.” Veteran Bengali actor and Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner, Soumitra Chatterjee said: “Really, I cannot believe he is no more. We have lost one of our most promising film directors. He was a great genius and the void left after his death cannot be easily filled.”
Veteran director Mrinal Sen also paid a visit to Ghosh’s residence. “He was a multi-faceted talent. It is a loss to the genre of film-making.” Novelist of Dahan, Suchitra Bhattacharya, said: “Am shocked. Today I remember him as the young boy who came to me with a request of making a film from this novel. We had differences during the process of making the film but it never overtook our relation.”
Actress Raima Sen, who had worked with Ghosh for the first time in Chokher Bali in 2003, said: “It’s a shock for the entire film industry.”