Soumitrada was an actor first, says Sudeshna Roy

“Soumitra Chatterjee will forever remain, just as stars do, in the hearts of millions and through all the characters he has played over five decades. Besides, stars never die. They just get brighter in your heart,” Sudeshna Roy told us, remembering the thespian, who breathed his last today.Revealing that she was a teenager when she first met him, she said, “I saw him at a wedding and kept looking his way as long as he was there. My young heart had fluttered like a butterfly. I wanted to get closer to him, but just did not have the guts. He was the star you could only gaze at. But things changed after I grew up, became a journalist and met him during assignments. When I entered the audiovisual world, I started interacting with him more and more. While working on Rituparno’s Asukh, it was a routine for us to sit together after a day’s shoot. He would then become one of us. He was still a star, but his light fell on us and illuminated our lives.”She went to add that she first got to direct him in their telefilm. “Both Abhijit (Guha) and I were worried. He was a senior actor and star! But Soumitrada was an actor first and extremely cooperative. He made us feel as if we were veteran directors. Since then, whenever we met, it was as if we were old friends. We shared the stories of his life, his initial regret that Ray had not cast him as Goopy, his friendship and rivalry with Uttam babu (Kumar), his daughter, wife, son, grandson and granddaughter, theatre, poetry and also his paintings and many more things.” Remembering the time when they had cast him in the lead with Gargee (RoyChowdhury) as his wife in Sraboner Dhara. “When we told him the casting, I remember him smiling and saying, ‘Wasn’t she my daughter in the telefilm that you shot with me?’ That was after a span of 15 years! I last met him after the lockdown when I needed a poem for our magazine. We had also discussed the pandemic. He was brave, unafraid, and valiant! He will never pass away. He will remain with us till we pass away!”