Supriya Devi will be given guard of honour, says WB CM Mamata Banerjee

Banerjee said Supriya Devi's body will be kept at Rabindra Sadan between 3 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. for people to pay respect to the veteran actor.

The body will be taken to Keoratala Burning Ghat after 6.30 p.m. where she will be given the guard of honour.

Mourning her death, Banerjee had earlier tweeted: "Very saddened at the passing of legendary actress of Bengal, Supriya Chowdhury (Debi) . We will fondly remember her through her films. Condolences to her family and fans."

Tollywood's senior actor Prosenjit Chatterjee, who visited Supriya Devi's house this morning, told media: "A senior member of our Tollywood family is lost. We will miss her."

Recounting his memory, Prosenjit said: "I had a personal bonding with her. I had visited, stayed, spent nights at her residence many times. She was a high level actor. I always urge the young generation to watch their (her) works."

Supriya Devi was one of the leading ladies of Tollywood film industry in the 1960s and had acted against the legendary Uttam Kumar in many films.

She passed away at her residence in Kolkata. She was 83 and survived by her daughter Soma.

With a career spanning over five decades, Supriya Devi (Chowdhury) would be remembered for her many stellar performances, including her essaying of a lower middle class family's sole bread earner Neeta in Ritwick Ghatak's Meghe Dhaka Tara in 1960. She started acting from the age of seven.

While she acted in more Ghatak films, she would be remembered for her role in commercially successful films like Chowringhee, Mon NIye, Kaal Tumi Aleya, Bilambita Loy, Dui Prithibi, Sabyasachi, etc.

Supriya Devi, whose screen image was of a modern outgoing fashionable woman owing to her portrayal of such roles in 1960s, was also the woman in the life of Uttam Kumar with whom she lived till the Bengali matinee idol died in 1980.

She had also acted in Hindi movies like Aap Ki Parchhaiyan (1964 opposite Dharmendra) , Begaana (1963 also opposite Dharmendra) and in Kishore Kumar's .Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein.

The actress was a recipient of Padma Shri and in 2011, she received the Banga-Vibhushan, the highest civilian honour in West Bengal.

She was also very popular on TV when she played the role of a granny in the teleserial Janani. She had also acted on stage and in the popular Bengali open air rural entertainment medium of Jatra.

The film fraternity mourned her death as condolence messages kept pouring in.

 

Image: Creative Commons.