Prosenjit Chatterjee mourns Ruma Guha Thakurta’s demise

Prosenjit Chatterjee, who is currently shooting Srijit Mukherji’s Gumnaami in a remote area of Chalsa, North Bengal, got the news a bit late. Upon getting the news, he shared his grief with CT.

“There is practically no network coverage in the area we are shooting. It is a remote area in Chalsa and I just got to know about her death. I used to call her mamoni. It is really sad. We did a lot of work together. In Amar Sangi, she played a major character. Her contribution to music is huge and in the acting department, she was way ahead of her time,” Prosenjit told us.

Eminent singer and actress Ruma Guha Thakurta breathed her last on Monday morning. She was 84. She is survived by her sons, Amit Kumar and Ayan Guha Thakurta and daughter, Sromona Chakraborty. Speaking to us on Monday afternoon, Sromona said, “She was suffering from age-related ailments and passed away peacefully in her sleep. On Monday morning, my sister-in-law went to serve her tea and discovered that she had passed away.”

Ruma started her career at a very early age. She was 10 when she joined Indian People's Theatre Association and started her career as a child artiste in Amiya Chakravarty's Jwar Bhata. It was during the course of her career at

Bombay Talkies

that she met Kishore Kumar and married the legendary singer in 1951. During her stay in Mumbai, she, along with Salil Chowdhury and Shailendra, started the Bombay Youth Choir. After returning to Kolkata, she, along with Salil Choudhury and Satyajit Ray, started the

Calcutta Youth Choir

in 1958. The versatile artiste acted in several films including Abhijaan, Amrita Kumbher Sandhane and more, in the course of her long career. The films she had done playback for included Lukochuri, Teen Kanya,

Anthony Firingee

and more. Eminent personalities from Bengal, including the film and music industries, paid their last respects to the actress-singer at her residence on Monday.