Legendary Bangla actor Soumitra Chatterjee passes away

Kolkata: Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee passed away on Sunday and the medical board at the Kolkata hospital where he was for over a month announced the news. He was 85.

"We declare with heavy heart that Shri Soumitra Chattopadhyay breathed his last at 12.15 p.m. at Belle Vue Clinic today (15 November 2020). We pay our homage to his soul," the bulletin from Kolkata's Belle Vue Hospital said.

Chatterjee's health condition was "extremely critical" and he was "not responding at all" to treatment, critical care expert and head of the medical board Arindam Kar had said just minutes back.

The octogenarian actor's health condition "extremely" deteriorated since Friday.

"The team of doctors including neurologist, nephrologist, cardiologist, those from critical care medicine, infection disease specialist, both from public and private sectors, every one has put their effort to get the legend back from the critical stage, but it is not working," Kar told IANS around 10 a.m.

He said that the doctors have tried really hard to "revive" Soumitra. "We are very sorry to say that he is not responding at all."

The Dadasaheb Phalke awardee was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Kolkata's Belle Vue Hospital for almost 40 days and his consciousness level went down significantly since Friday. The condition of the veteran actor had remained a matter of concern owing to co-morbidities and advanced age. His key problem was Covid-19 encephalopathy, doctors said.

Soumitra Chatterjee tested positive for coronavirus on October 5 and got admitted to the hospital the very next morning.

He was shooting for a documentary titled "Abhijan" directed by actor Parambrata Chattopadhyay. Last time he attended the shooting floor at Bharatlaxmi Studio was on October 1. The next shooting schedule was fixed on October 7.