Babita remembers her ‘guiding light’ Soumitra Chattopadhyay

For Bangladeshi actress Babita, Soumitra Chattopadhyay was a guiding light and his devotion to acting was unparalleled.
Babita had worked with the iconic actor in 1972 when she was around 15. It was Ray’s ‘Ashani Sanket’. Only two of her films had released at that time. Being on the sets with two stalwarts, Satyajit Ray and Soumitra Chatterjee, she felt anxious and excited at the same time.
“I was outside my country for the first time during ‘Ashani Sanket’. I had to arrange my passport with great difficulty. ‘Ashani Sanket" was being shot in Birbhum at that time. There was no dialogue in the first shot of the film. The scene was me allowing an old man to stay at our house providing him with some food. Soumitra Chatterjee was had to ask who the man was using sign language, and I had to respond to him in the same way. The shot would have been ended at where I bite my tongue, after giving him the answer. When the shot was over, he showered me with praise. He was so down to earth that I forgot all my worries,” shared the popular Bangladeshi actress in an exclusive chat with ETimes.
Going down the memory lane she further revealed once, while they were shooting for the film during Eid how Soumitra surprised her. “I was feeling not so cheerful as I was away from my family. He saw that I almost cried, and asked me if anything was wrong. He told me to wait till we finish shooting for the day. Then lots of feast, firecrackers and delicious food, was what he had in store for me in the evening that day,” added the actress.