Theatre personality, veteran actor Biplab Dasgupta passes away at 75

Kolkata: Veteran actor Biplab Dasgupta passed away at his residence in Kolkata on Friday at the age of 75. An all-rounder in creative arts, Dasgupta leaves behind a legacy spanning memorable stage performances, popular television serials, telefilms, cinema and audio plays.Dasgupta was suffering from an auto-immune disease of the nervous system. “He became anorexic and passed away at home,” said his wife, Ruma Dasgupta. Many mourning his demise agree that Dasgupta represented a rare breed of artist in the Bengali industry who approached acting as a formal discipline rather than just a profession. His career has been characterized by an intellectual rigour that likely stemmed from his academic background in English literature from Jadavpur University. This scholarly foundation was evident in his acting style that was restrained, precise, and deeply rooted in the text.Born in Kolkata, Dasgupta worked as a newsreader in Doordarshan. “His passion was theatre. His acting career began on stage. He was in Bohurupee in the 70s and started his stage career with Shombhu Mitra. The person who brought him to serials and telefilms was Anjan Dutt,” his wife remembered.Not too many know that he had played the manager of Globe theatre in the Hugh Grant-starrer ‘La Nuit Bengali’ (1988) that was shot in Kolkata. In 2004, he also acted in Florian Gallenberger’s ‘Shadows of Time’. In the Bengali screen, he was known for his serials like ‘Jogomaya’ and ‘Checkmate’, web series like ‘Chemistry Mashi’ apart from movies like Srijit Mukherji’s ‘Gumnaami’, ‘22shey Srabon’, Atanu Ghosh’s ‘Mayurakshi’ and Riingo’s ‘Jodi Ekdin’, among others.His expertise as an elocutionist stemmed from a profound mastery over vocal texture and rhythmic timing. Being a trained elocutionist, Dasgupta understood how to use breath and cadence to convey complex emotions without resorting to over-the-top physical gestures. This made him a favourite for directors who needed characters with a sense of dignity or gravitas.Whether he was playing a lawyer in a courtroom drama in Saibal Mitra’s ‘A Holy Conspiracy’ or Raja Rammohan Roy in Tony Tew’s ‘A Candle in the Dark: The Story of William Carey’, he brought a level of sophistication that made his characters feel lived-in and intelligent. Mitra remembered him as an erudite actor with exceptional command over diction. "Unlike many talented actors in Bengal who struggled with English and Hindi pronunciation, Biplab-da was flawless. Even Naseeruddin Shah admired his acting style while working with him in 'A Holy Conspiracy'," Mitra recalled.On stage, he was best known for his performance in his own adaptation of Macbeth. What set his performances apart was a scholarly restraint, as he relied on intellectual depth and precise emotional control rather than the melodramatic physical gestures common in mainstream acting. “Then there was Anjan Dutt’s ‘Danton’ and Tamal Roychowdhury’s ‘Tartuffe’,” his wife mentioned.One of his memorable works was an audio play titled ‘William-Tagore Meet’. “I worked with him in one of his brilliantly conceptualised and executed work, ‘William-Tagore Meet’. It was a comparative presentation of Shakespeare and Tagore. He had conceived and written it himself. He tried to show that despite the stalwarts having lived centuries apart, their thoughts were so aligned. We would read out excerpts from the original works. His translation of ‘Macbeth’ in Bengali was brilliant. We have done a number of shows here and abroad,” actor Anashua Majumdar remembered. Describing him as an all-rounder with a very positive attitude, she added, “He was a livewire and had a delightful sense of humour. When we would sit for rehearsals, our first one hour was devoted to our adda. He had so many anecdotes and tales. I lost a good friend.”